Medway watermills (middle tributaries)
A stream rises in Colebrook Park, Pembury, and enters the Medway from the left below Town Mills, Tonbridge.
[1] TQ 594 428 51°09′44″N 0°16′50″E / 51.162124°N 0.280653°E / 51.162124; 0.280653 (Brook Mill) David Willard built this forge for Sir Thomas Fane in 1553.
It had an overshot waterwheel.A[4] A stream rises at Colts Hill, Brenchley and enters the Medway from the right bank downstream of the Southborough Bourne.
[6] The Pen Stream rises to the west of Dene Park in Tonbridge, entering the Medway from the left at Hadlow Stair.
Millers include James Full, who died 18 March 1871 aged 66, and was buried in Plaxtol churchyard.
The Upright Shaft was of wood and the Great Spur Wheel was of compass arm construction, as shown on a photograph of 1955.
The mills were worked by Messrs, Turner & Co from at least 1862 to post 1882 and produced paper which Messrs. De La Rue used for printing colonial postage stamps.
In 1759 the mill was leased by Isabella and William Dalyson to Mrs Elizabeth Buttonshaw for 21 years at £45 per annum.
The mill was at one time owned by the Geary family and worked by William Young and his son Edward in the period 1847–75.
The crown wheel was used latterly to drive the electricity generator, with one of the stone nuts being adapted as the driven gear.
The only reference to it being the Wrotham Tithe Award of 1845 noting a hop garden of 2 acres (8,100 m2) and 35 perches "adjoining mill.
A painting of the mill by Charles Tattershall Dodd (1815–78) can be seen in Tunbridge Wells Museum & Art Gallery.
The furnace produced 200 tons of iron in 1717 and John Legas was working it in partnership with William Harrison.
This was a corn mill; the building survives today converted to a dwelling, devoid of machinery except the sack hoist.
A modified furnace continued in use at Bedgebury for some time for the firing of clay and bricks, produced by the various workshops at Cranbrook Pottery; however the advent of production in the Midlands with better availability of power, transport, labour and materials all but ended hopes of retaining industry in the area.
The sluice has long been dismantled, however the race is clearly visible to walkers using the bridleway that crosses the river Teise on a stone bridge.
In 1596 the furnace was owned by Sir Thomas Waller, and leased to John Iden and Robert Pothill.
When Bewl Water was built, the fourteenth century Mill House was dismantled and re-erected at Three Legged Cross, Wadhurst.
it drove a cast iron pit wheel 10 feet 8 inches (3.25 m) diameter with 112 wooden cogs.
It was in the Culpeper family in the sixteenth century, Thomas Collepepper holding lands in Chingley in fief from Henry VIII in 1544.
There is evidence that Chingley Forge was a hammer mill at some time, possibly as early as the first half of the thirteenth century.
In the mid nineteenth century it was worked in conjunction with the Union Mill, the miller being Mr Russell.
On 18 June 1557 the miller, William Allin and his wife Katherine were burned at the stake at Fairmeadow, Maidstone, along with five other Protestants.
The Allins had fed the poor, sold corn at half price and read scriptures to people.
It was working until the winter of 1947–8, when the machinery was damaged through being iced up.B, C[45] A tributary of the above stream flows into the pond of Hartridge mill.
The cast iron Great Spur Wheel has 128 cogs and drove four pairs of millstone at one time.
it runs for 7 miles (11 km) passing through Sissinghurst and Frittenden and then joins the River Beult at Headcorn.
[43] The Crane Brook rises at Hartley, it powered a number of mills before joining the Hammer Stream at Biddenden.
John Tooth bought a house in Stone Street, Cranbrook in the late eighteenth century.
The cast iron axle is 9 inches (230 mm) square, and bears the legend "WEEKS & SON, MAIDSTONE 1875" on one face.
