Priory Mill Arch - Brook End - Repton, Derbyshire - Relocated Structures on Waymarking.com

"Two corn mills are known to have existed at Repton, both lying on the brook which runs just to the east of the village. The first of these belonged to the Priory, although whether it was constructed at the same time as the original monastic buildings is not known. A charter dated to some time between 1217 and 1231 of Ranulph, Earl of Chester, confirmed to the Holy Trinity of Repton ‘the site of the mill and its pool below their Court in Rapendon as far as the water descending from the house of William Etebred on Trent...’ (Williamson 1932), and it was still in existence at the time of the dissolution, since the details of the property acquired by Thomas Thacker included a water mill, described as ‘adjoining the monastery’ (Fraser 1942). However, neither its exact location nor the date of its disappearance are known. The brook now runs to the east of the precinct wall although the 1829 map of Repton shows a stream containing a long narrow pond branching off this and crossing the site that later became the school playing fields. It ran under an arch in the school wall, which was moved early in the 20th century, as indicated by a plaque set in the wall which reads:
‘Under this arch once flowed the water to the Priory Mill. The arch was moved nine yards from the north to the present position in March 1905’
This part of the stream and the pond are not shown on the 1881 OS map, having presumably been filled in by then. It may, in fact, have been the original course, since Hipkins (1909) suggests that the stream was diverted to its present course outside the eastern boundary wall by Sir John Harpur in 1606 and Macdonald (1929) refers to a counterclaim made by Gilbert Thacker ometime after 1592 against Harpur for having interfered with the watercourse that worked the mill. Both Macdonald (1929) and 16 Gifford (1993) suggested that the mill had stood at Brook End, while Fraser (1942) considered that the laying out of the Repton School playing fields had destroyed any possibility of tracing its exact position. Bigsby (1854,115) refers to ‘a spot called the “Dam Garden”, on the south-west side of the “Paddock”’, which he considered to indicate the location of the mill, but it is not clear from this exactly where he means."

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Original Location: N 52° 50.437 W 001° 32.904 How it was moved: Disassembled Type of move: Inside City Building Status: Public Related Website: [Web Link]

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