BATHPOOL & LEWARNE

Bathpool Post Office

Bathpool Wesleyan Chapel

Bathpool Wesleyan Band of Hope 1902

This was taken at Lanoy. Albert Jewell has been marked with the letter "A" and Ethel Buckingham with the letter "B"

Harris' Smithy, Bathpool

Richard Harris' smithy was operational from the 1890s well into the 1960s and perhaps beyond that. Richard died in 1953 and his son, Harold, took over the business. Harold died in retirement in Weston-Super-Mare in 1994.

click on each photo for a larger image

Bathpool Mill

Bathpool Mill is a complex of small buildings on the banks of the River Lynher close to Bathpool Bridge.

The two main buildings were a water mill and a home for the miller and his family. In mediaeval times it was customary for the lord of the manor to lease arable land to tenant farmers on condition that they brought their grain to one of his specific mills for grinding. It is highly likely that Bathpool Mill was part of such an arrangement for local tenant farmers of the Duchy of Cornwall; upstream was Battens Mill, the mill for the Trebartha Estate; downstream was Rilla Mill in Linkinhorne . There are other buildings on the Bathpool Mill site to service the grain milling operation as well as the miller's farming activities. It is possible that all the buildings on the site have been altered over the centuries as the needs of the land owner and the miller changed.

This aerial image shows the River Lynher flowing from the top left to the bottom right at Bathpool Bridge; click on the image for a larger version.

To power the mill a channel, known as a leat, was cut starting a little further upstream, to take water from the river and bring it to the water wheel. Its course can be seen as it flowed past the mill building, which fronts onto Mill Lane, and then conitnued its path back into the Lynher just north of the bridge. The leat is now largely filled in but the section between the mill and the river has been partly restored. The wheel was an overshot wheel like the one shown here. The other roofed building is Bathpool Millhouse and was the home of the miller and his family.

These two buildings and the bridge hold protected status because of their antiquity and importance. The listed descriptions of these three structures are as follows:

• Bathpool Mill - Probably C18. Stone rubble. Steeply pitched slate roof with hipped ends. Plan: Rectangular plan, probably originally powered by an overshot water wheel on the right hand end (now gone). Ground rises to rear and the loft is approached through a door in the left hand end. Exterior: Two storeys. Entrance on left with stable type door. Small pivot C20 windows to right and on first floor. Interior: Machinery removed.
   
• Bathpool Millhouse - Probably C17 origins. Stone rubble with granite dressings. Slate roof with gable ends. Stone rubble and ashlar granite end stacks, the left hand stack projecting with set offs and the right hand stack with a cloam oven projection. Plan: Possibly two room and cross passage plan. Larger hall kitchen on right and smaller possibly parlour on left, partitioned off with a dairy to rear. Exterior: Two storeys. Asymmetrical 3-window front with C19 6-panel door in open timber porch, flanked by two 2-light casements . Three C19 2-light casements on first floor. Rear elevation with C17 granite 3-light mullion window lighting dairy to rear left. Above this window is a blocked window opening which has a granite frame with some reset dressed granite.
   
• Bathpool Bridge - Road bridge over River Lynher. Probably late C19. Stone rubble and granite. 5-span bridge with stone rubble and granite piers which project slightly forward. Stone rubble cutwaters on upstream side truncated below parapets. The lintels are constructed of large roughly cut pieces of granite. The parapets are of stone rubble. Henderson, C and Coates, N Old Cornish Bridges and Streams reprinted 1972.

It is possible that earlier references to the mill may exist in the archived documents of The Duchy of Cornwall but the earliest known record in the parish register dates to the baptism of John Barrett on 4 June 1817. John was baptised at St Torney's and was the only child of the miller and his wife - Richard and Annabella Barrett.

At this time the land and mill was owned by The Duke of Cornwall and was leased to the Barrett family who worked the mill. By the time of the making of the 1840 tithe map Richard Barrett had moved to Bearah Farm, downstream on the River Lynher and on the opposite bank. His lease on the mill from The Duchy was still extant and so he sub-let the mill and its operations to Thomas Haley. The extract from the tithe map (see below and click for a larger image) shows that the miller also occupied several fields, outlined in red, which were used for timber and wood, growing crops and cultvating fruit. The meadow land was probably used for grazing animals.

Reproduced with the kind permission of Kresen Kernow ref: AD1409/1

Richard and Annabella died in May 1853 and November 1854 respectively and their son, John, took over Bearah Farm until his death in 1896. How long the Barrett family continued to hold the lease on Bathpool Mill is not known.

Thomas Haley and family are shown at Bathpool Mill until Thomas died in May 1854. His widow, Mary, remarried to John Hill of Kingbear in August 1855 and John Barrett was one of the witnesses at the wedding. It is likely that the next occupant of Bathpool Mill was Henry Jones who was still there in 1861.

The census returns show the miller as follows:

• 1841: Thomas Haley (33) - a miller; with his family, two mill workers and a domestic servant
• 1851: Thomas Haley (43) - a master miller; with his family, two mill workers and a lodger (a tin miner)
• 1861: Henry Jones (40) - a miller; with his family and two mill workers
• 1871: William Babb (39) - a miller; with his family , a mill worker and a domestic servant
• 1881: William Babb (49) - a miller and farmer; with his family
• 1891: William Babb (59) - a farmer and miller; with his family (one son working in the mill) and three boarders (one retired farmer and two blacksmiths)
• 1901 - William Babb (69) - a miller; with his family (one son working in the mill)

By 1911 the mill would appear to be not operational. William Babb had died in 1909 and his 80 year old widow was living at the mill with one of their daughters and a granddaughter. Their son, James, was 50 and also living in Bathpool but his occupation was given as a farmer. Nobody in Bathpool was recorded as a miller.

Leat for Bathpool Bone Mill

In early 2021 Bathpool resident, Paul Healey, set about solving a problem in his garden. A large area in the middle of the slope down to the stream was always damp. To understand why this was happening Paul dug down into the area and found that the land drains that had been previously put in didn't solve the problem because they drained in the wrong direction. Down the slope from the damp area it was unexpectedly dry and Paul also excavated that area. In doing so he uncovered a structure which ran the length of the garden.

This posed a range of questions - what was this structure, who built it and why, how long had it been there, why was it covered over?

The structure was a leat and in this photo you can see a length of it exposed, running down to the stream. The gaps were covered by the slabs shown here lying on the grass. A rod pressed down into the silt in the channel showed it to be a few feet deep and lined with stone at the bottom with walls of stone as well. Following the line of the channel back up its run revealed that it continued to Bridge Cottage.

The Apportionment Book for the 1840 Tithe Assessment for North Hill described Bridge Cottage as a "bone mill" and it would have required power to operate the bone crushing wheels. The power came from a water wheel. Bones were a readily available resource given the reliance on horses and other draft animals at the time. Bone meal was used for fertilizing the local fields.

The course of the leat can be seen in red on the extract from the tithe map shown below. Water flowed from the area of The Rodd Mine down to the bridge that divides Lewarne from Bathpool, under Bridge Cottage and along the stream to join with the River Lynher to the south, just off this map.

Reproduced with the kind permission of Kresen Kernow ref: AD1409/1

Extracts from the 1840 Tithe Map of North Hill showing the plot on which the leat was discovered and surrounding plots:

• plot number 1811 - "Croft", meadow and pasture; owned By Francis Rodd; occupied by Richard Hocking
• plot number 1812 - "Bone Mill and Garden"; owned by Francis Rodd; occupied by Richard Buckingham
• plot number 1813 - "Blacksmith's Shop and Yard"; owned jointly by the Duke of Cornwall & Francis Rodd; occupied by Richard Buckingham
• plot number 1809 - "Barn & Yard"; owned by Francis Rodd; occupied by Richard Hocking
• plot number 1808 - "Houses, Yard and Garden"; owned by William Harris snr; occupied by William Harris jnr
• plot number 1828 - "Bathpool Ham", pasture and stream; owned and occupied by John Peter

The leat is located above and below the mill. Above the mill is a short run through a sluice gate, close to the bridge, diverting water from the millpond, dammed in the valley on the upstream side of the road. The water in this part of the leat runs along the side of the mill where an undershot water wheel (of the type shown in this diagram) was in place to turn the millstones and crush the bones. The outflow leat is the part that has been exposed in Paul's garden and runs the water back into the stream, which in turn flows into the River Lynher.

When the leat was built it was done to satisfy the need to maintain the meadow as pasture for animal grazing. It can be seen from the key to the map above that Francis Rodd was the owner of the land upon which Brook Cottage was built, and the meadow under which the leat was constructed. Richard Buckingham rented the cottage and Richard Hocking grazed his animals on the meadow, and with the leat covered over could continue to do so.

The lease on the mill dated the 20th November 1840 has survived in Kresen Kernow (the archive for Cornwall's Records) and records the two parties to the transaction as Reverend Edward Rodd of Trebartha Hall, the landowner, and Richard Buckingham of North Hill, millwright who rented on the basis of buildings to be erected on the plot and 5 shillings (25p) per year. It also describes the plot of land and the planned watercourse which the Buckingham family built:

"Piece or spot of land in North Hill bounded on north with road leading from Bathpool to Lewarne, on east with Grift (sic - should be Croft, see plot number 1811 above) meadow, on south with John Peter's land, on west with the old channel of the watercourse now working the mill erected by lessee; with liberty to use drain or watercourse now made through Grift meadow as a channel to convey water from any mill or machinery on the premises to the river; drain to be kept securely covered so that no water may escape over the meadow, and so that the grass may grow thereon; house not to be used for sale of beer or cider".

The landowner named in the lease was 72 year old Edward Rodd (1768-1842) but the Tithe Apportionment book gives his son and heir Francis Rodd (1806-1880) as the landowner. It seems that Edward had allowed his son to take control of matters of the Trebartha Estate.

Richard Buckingham was a carpenter by trade and the 1841 census shows him living at home in the house on plot 1802. His son John, also a carpenter, was married and living with his own family nearby in Little Lewarne. Richard's youngest son James, a blacksmith, was living at home but working at the smithy next to Bridge Cottage. Ten years later Richard was still living on plot 1802 (Lewarne Cottage as it is known today). John had moved closer to his father and James was living in Bridge Cottage and working the adjacent smithy.

As part of the restoration Paul Healey has allowed part of the leat to remain exposed, without the capping stones, and he has landscaped this to be a feature in his garden, which now has proper working drainage. By reintroducing a flow from the stream, from close to the boundary with the garden of Brook Cottage, into the leat, almost all the silt has been washed away and clear water now runs through it.

This image from late 2021 shows the area after it was turfed and ready for planting.

The spring of 2022 brought forth the first flowers on the site.

We are grateful to Jackie Healey for these wonderful photographs. Click for larger images.

The images that make up the banner at the top of this page show the old post office and the bridge over the River Lynher.