They say that all good things
come in threes, and so it is with the
ageless scene presented by Mrs Deane’s Bere
Mill. The widow of Thomas Deane, Jane had
the mill and mill house built in 1710, each
three storeys high (the mill house also has
three bays) near Whitchurch. Henri Portal
began leasing the mill in 1711 and used it
as a paper mill; a record shows that in 1717
‘he insured his goods and merchandise in
his dwelling house at Bere Mill.’ When
Henri moved on to Laverstoke, Overton and
Quidhampton Mills, to continue his
papermaking successes, Bere Mill’s
operations changed to flour milling but, it
seems, to the detriment of at least three of
the next millers there, two of whom were
imprisoned for debt. The last of the three,
Earle Wedge, is listed as a ‘miller and
corn dealer bankrupt’. The next entry is
for 1897 where Bere Mill is offered for
leasing along with Overton and Quidhampton
Mills.
In 1905, a Gilkes Landheer
turbine was fitted by Rowley Eastman’s
father at the behest of Lord Portal. It’s
1901 design with 12 doors and blades turned
at 22rpm, driving a generator of 440v DC
40A. The resulting power, transmitted via a
Siemens Co-axial Concentric cable to the
Laverstoke Paper Mill two miles away, was
used for a paper glazing machine. In the
1930s the cable was sold to supply cable to
St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. Armfields
reconditioned the turbine in 1948 and Rowley
Eastman rewound the generator to provide
power to the house and mill. It is still
used today and has been given some
maintenance recently by HMG members, Mick
Edgeworth, Basil Hunt and John Silman.
On Sunday, 12th
May, several HMG members attended the mill
to relate the history to visitors who were
also taking advantage of enjoying the
gardens which the owners, Rupert and
Elizabeth Nabarro, opened to the public
under the National Gardens Scheme combined
with National Mills Weekend. Seeing inside
the mill was a rare treat relished by many
local people who regaled us with their own
tales last of whom, but no means least, of
these were the Whitchurch Mayor and Mayoress,
Barry and Janet Jackman.
