The Early Mills of Ewyas Lacy

This account gives information on the watermills of the lordship of Ewyas Lacy, one of the first Marcher lordships to be carved out of Welsh territory, now located in the southwest corner of the county of Herefordshire. The intention is to review the earliest available records of mills and where possible link them to known mill sites. The mills were mainly corn mills, sometimes called grist mills, grinding locally grown grain for human consumption and for animal feed. Some were converted to fulling or tuck mills where the waterwheels powered trip hammers for beating woven cloth to improve its strength and texture.

I am indebted to Dewi Bowen Williams for sharing the results of his researches and to the Ewyas Lacy Study Group for making so much information available online.

The Manorial Mills

It is not known when Ewyas Lacy first acquired a mill. The Domesday Book, normally an invaluable source on early mills, is unhelpful. Ewyas Lacy is mentioned, but being in Wales at the time it was not subject to English taxes, so the record is unusually sketchy. In 1086 Roger de Lacy had 14 mills among the extensive Herefordshire estates he inherited from his father, Walter. Walter de Lacy I, who founded the lordship of Ewyas Lacy, was a builder of castles and churches, so he may well have built one or more mills in Ewyas, if there was none there already. Perhaps the earliest extant record of a mill in Ewyas Lacy is from around 1234 when Elizabeth Bigod donated a fulling mill to Craswall Priory, recently founded by her father-in-law, Walter de Lacy II. She would not have given this mill to the priors if at that time the lordship had no other mills. (Duncumb)

The presence of a mill in this period was confirmed when the excavations on Longtown Castle Green in 2017 recovered a piece of millstone from debris dating to the first half of the thirteenth century. It had a pecked working face and was typical of the millstones quarried at Penallt in the Wye Valley, made of a quartz conglomerate known as puddingstone. (Cook & Kidd)

Theobald of Verdun died in 1316 before his heir was of age and, as was customary, his property was temporarily taken into Crown control. An inquisition into the value of his estates noted that he held Longtown Castle and a moiety or half share of the manor of Ewyas Lacy, including a half share of three mills worth £10 a year. The fact that the mills were held in moiety informs us that they already existed before the lordship was divided between Walter de Lacy’s two granddaughters after his death in 1241. In 1369 an inquisition after the death of Bartholomew de Berghersh also refers to a moiety of three mills, now worth only 100 shillings (£5) a year. The reduction in value was probably due to the effects of the Black Death on the economy. (GAEV D1538.107.1)

In their accounts of the revenue from the manor of Ewyas Lacy, the reeves named the three mills as Clodock (Seynt Cladok, Cradokys Mill, etc.), Michaelchurch and Castle Mill (Castelmyll). There are still mills at Clodock and Michaelchurch Escley but the site of Castle Mill is unknown. It must have been located near to Longtown Castle. A track from the castle through Pen-y-dre Farm provides good access to the Olchon Brook where a ford may have acted as a mill weir. Alternatively Castle Mill may have been at Old Mill, a little further up the Olchon. 

The manor and the surrounding area suffered depredations at the hands of Welsh rebels during the fifteenth century. This may explain why in 1493 both Castle Mill and Clodock Mill were reported as being ‘ruinous for lack of repair’ (and were to remain so for over a century). Michaelchurch Mill was apparently still functioning, with Richard Seicell paying a rental of 10 shillings per annum.  The rental was raised to 13 shillings and four pence in 1504 but from 1508 to 1510 David ap Philip ap Rees was again paying 10 shillings. By 1532 Michaelchurch Mill was also in ruins. (HARC G33/I/2; G33/I/4; G33/I/5; NAK SC6/HENVIII/1341)

When Queen Elizabeth I gave her moiety of the Ewyas Lacy lordship to Robert Dudley, Earl of Essex, his survey in 1566 made no mention of working mills, only a ‘stead for a mill at Michel Church Escley whereupon a watermill hath been in time past’. (Longleat DU/VOL.XVII)

The manorial records of Ewyas Lacy for 1594–1600 again refer to three mills. ‘Of any profits issuing from a moiety of the Mills called Castle Mill, Uske [Escley] Mill otherwise Michell Churche and Cradok Mill had this year as in divers years preceeding - nothing – because for many years past they have been thrown down and are totally in ruins.’ (GAEV DI1583.107.2)

The Monastic Mills 

Llanthony Priory originated as a hermitage in 1108 under Hugh de Lacy’s lordship. It was soon endowed with great wealth and the church was one of the finest medieval buildings in Wales. Water running through the priory precinct was channelled into fishponds and a mill. 

The village of Cwmyoy was part of the priory estates. It also has the ruins of a mill but it is not known when this was working. After Walter de Lacy II assigned his legal authority to the priors, the Llanthony Priory estates ceased to be part of the Ewyas Lacy lordship. 

The founding charter for Craswall Priory records that in 1225 Walter de Lacy II granted land to the monks of the Grandmontine order, permitting them to build a religious house with fishponds and mills. The traces of watercourses and foundations of a mill are still visible southeast of the church. Around 1234 the priory also received the gift of a mill with a burgage and eight acres of land from Elizabeth Bigod, the widow of Gilbert de Lacy, Walter’s son. After the priory was dissolved in 1441 its lands were granted to ‘God’s House’, later Christ’s College, Cambridge.

The Rise of Mills in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

With the three manorial mills inactive for such a long time it is not surprising that other mills came into being. As early as 1504 the reeve was collecting six pence a year for work on a millstream, not connected with any of the three manorial mills. The mill in question was probably Pontynys in Longtown. 

The reeve’s report in 1532 records the lease of a parcel of land called Demesne y Velin. This translates as ‘the lord’s land with a mill’, velin being the Anglicized spelling of felin, Welsh for a mill. 

Several conveyances of estates with mills in Ewyas Lacy during the second half of the sixteenth century and the start of the seventeenth century were recorded in ‘final concords’ or ‘fines’, held at the Court of Common Pleas.

1551 House and mill with 86 acres of land in Llanveynoe. 

(NAK CP 25/2/58/428/5EDWVIEASTER)

1560 House and two mills with 820 acres of land in Rowlestone and Llancillo.

                                        (NAK CP 25/2/148/1936/ELIZIEASTER)

1560 House and mill with190 acres of land in Longtown.

(NAK CP 25/2/148/1938/3ELIZIHIL fol 165) 

1572 House and mill with 27 acres of land in Llanveynoe.

(NAK CP 25/2/149/1973/14/15ELIZIMICH)

1574 Two houses and mill with 110 acres of land in Longtown.

  (NAK CP 25/2/149/1981/16/17ELIZIMICH)

1574 House and two mills with 230 acres in Longtown.

  (NAK CP 25/2/149/1981/16/17ELIZIMICH)

1579 Four houses and mill with 140 acres of land in Clodock.

(HARK T24/4)

1592 House and mill with 94 acres of land in Clodock.

  (NAK CP 25/2/152/2054/35/36ELIZIMICH)

1593 Three houses and mill with 720 acres of land in Michaelchurch Eskley

                                        (NAK CP 25/2/153/2058/36/37ELIZIMICH)

1604 House and mill with 62 acres of land in Michaelchurch Eskley.

(NAK CP 25/2/300/2JASIEASTER)

1608 House and mill with 56 acres of land in Craswall.

(NAK CP 25/2/300/6JASIEASTER)

1608 Two houses and fulling mill with 166 acres of land in Clodock and Michaelchurch Eskley.

                                        (NAK CP 25/2/300/6JASIMICH)

In addition to the above, the Allterynys estate at Walterstone had two mills when it was granted to Sir Robert Cecil in 1597. (AW28/41/1)

It is not known exactly when any of these mills were first built and in most cases there is insufficient information to ascertain their precise location, but it is clear that mills proliferated in the post-medieval period. At that time they were generally integrated into fairly large freehold estates, rather than being the stand-alone businesses that many later became.

Those that still owed dues to the manor were usually held on long-term leases because they required the input of capital expenditure by the tenant. The fine or fee required to secure a lease could be a considerable sum of money, compared with the annual rental in only shillings or pence that had been set in the early days of the lordship. As with other properties in the manor, a heriot, usually the second-best beast, would have to be paid on the death of a tenant.

There follows a list of the Ewyas Lacy mills with the earliest documentation that can be associated with them. They are ordered by the relevant watercourse, from upstream to downstream.

MILLS ON THE ESKLEY BROOK

Pikes Farm, Michaelchurch

NGR: SO291382

In his will of 1604 Jenkyn Madye bequeathed to his mother and his wife in equal shares a house, a mill and fields. He also left two lambs to John Wilkin David, the miller. Research by Tony Gray places this mill at Pikes Farm on the upper Escley. (NAK Prob 11/104/381)

The sale document of 1653 records the house and mill at Michaelchurch with 10 acres of land called Cay Filo, now occupied by Thomas Powell Maddy. (GAEV MAN/A/151/0077)

According to John Jeffreys’s survey the mill was later let as part of a larger parcel of lands on a 99-year lease dated 1674, held firstly by Walter Pikes and then by William James, for 10 shillings per annum.  By 1705 all was not well with the mill. The survey states, ‘One meadow called Cae Filloe … with one water mill … now grown to decay.’ (HARC J91/4)

Old Mill, Michaelchurch

NGR: SO289372 

The reeve’s report in 1532 records the leasing of a parcel of land ‘above the town of Ewyas Lacy called Demayne Yveline so demised to Henry ap Thomas’ for four shillings a year. (NAK SC6/HENVIII/1341)

A survey for Lord Bergavenny dated 1624–1626 records that in 1611 Thomas Probert of Longtown and his wife Alice paid £24 for a lease on lands called Demeanes y Vellyne containing by estimation 28 acres. The lease ran for 21 years with a rental of four shillings a year. Phillippe Lewis Harry had previously held the land. A note made in 1718 said the current holder was Rowland Jennings. (GAEV MAN/A/151/0022)

The land was ‘bounded on the east upon the road leading from the Keven to Longtown.’ There are Keven or Cefn Farms north of Michaelchurch, which suggests this is Old Mill on the Eskley Brook. (However, if Keven referred to the Cefn Farms east of the Dulas Brook, this might have been Cwm Dulas Mill, although that is less likely to be described as ‘above the town of Ewyas Lacy’.)

The Earl of Abergavenny’s Ewyas Lacy burgage rents included two shillings from ‘Silvanus Lewis for the mill and lands’ in 1701 and two shillings from ‘Kath[erine] Morgan for the old Mill and Lands’ in 1711. (GAEV MAN/A/2/0252; MAN/A/151/0026)

It is not at all certain that these refer to Old Mill on the Eskley, however the tithe map does show a homestead called Old Kates adjoining Old Mill by the Cefn Farms.

Little Mill, Michaelchurch

NGR: SO306362

There is a millrace by a Mill Plock and Mill Meadow on the Eskley below Lower House, a mile upstream from the Corn Mill. In 1754 Little Mill was part of an estate owned by the daughters of John Watkins with John Weech as tenant. (HARC F94/II/231 & 232)

The Corn Mill, Michaelchurch 

NGR: SO315345

In 1642 James Harry Howell released a water grist mill and three acres of adjoining land in Michaelchurch to Phillip Watkine of Ewyas Harold, apparently as security for a loan. This is presumably the Corn Mill, at or near the site of the earlier manorial mill. (HARC P82/11/8836 LC Books)

Ten years later, in 1652, William Thomas bought the mill from James Harry Howell for £22. He also took over the mortgage from Phillip Watkine for a principal of £60 and interest of three pounds and 12 shillings per annum payable until 1658. The description of the property was ‘all that messuage or tenement wherein William Thomas now inhabits, one garden, one water corn or grist mill and one parcel of meadow ground adjoining the said mill containing by estimation two days and a half of hay or thereabouts, together with all yards, banksides, waters, watercourses, easements, banks, sluices, weirs, ponds and materials, lying in the parish of Michaelchurch Escley between the river of Escley, the lands late of Abraham Powell deceased and a parcel of land of the said William Thomas called Cae Mawre.’ (HARC P82/11/8837 & 8843 LC Books)

William Thomas must have defaulted on the mortgage because the mill came into the possession of William Howell, James Harry Howell’s son. He in turn became indebted to John Powell, who took possession of the mill in 1664 and assigned the mortgage to John Price. John Price then took possession around 1672 and refused to accept payment from the heirs of William Howell who wanted to recover the mill for their own use. They took the matter to the Court of Chancery in 1686. (NAK E132/2 JAS2/MICH29; E112/581/47)

The outcome of the case is not known but the mill later became part of the Michaelchurch Court estate. When offered for sale in 1815 as part of the intended disposal of Michaelchurch Court with ‘the Manor or reputed manor of Ewyas Lacy,’ it was described as ‘A very excellent Water Corn Grist Mill and Clover Engine, in full business, with a Mill House and Buildings’ and some 10 acres of capital meadow land. (Hereford Journal 12 July 1815)

The Corn Mill, Michaelchurch, has been partially restored. Further information and a comprehensive list of occupiers can be found at ‘The life and times of Michaelchurch Mill’ on the ELSG website.

Llyn Du Mill, Newton

NGR: SO333318

Lord Bergavenny’s survey and rental of 1624-26 cites ‘a messuage, two milnes & certayne landes called Melyn Llyn Duy’ paying a rental of 11 pence, part of several properties held by Robert Hopton. A later side note on the survey gives the occupier in 1718 as William Pitt. (GAEV MAN/A/151 0022)

After the English Civil War, the moiety of the manor of Ewyas Lacy previously given to Lord Dudley by Queen Elizabeth was sequestered and sold to the Parliamentarian Thomas Harrison for just five shillings. The sale document of 1653 refers to a ‘messuage or tenement with a Water Grist Mill thereunto adjoining  …  known by the name of Velline Lloyne D…ee’ in the occupation of Myles Thomas. (GAEV MAN/A/151/0077)

Lord Bergavenny’s survey of 1687 mentions ‘a lane leading from the Lyndee Mills towards The Quarelly’, which places the mills at Newton. 

John Jeffrey’s survey of 1705 says that William Pitt holds a 99-year lease dated 1681 for ‘all that Messge or Tenement called Llyndee Ycha … with all that Water Corne Grist mill now converted into a fulling mill called Llynddee lyeth in theTownship of Longtown and Newton then in the poss[ess]ion of Rowland Jenning & now in the possion of the said Wm Pytt [to have and to hold] for the term of ninety and nine years’. (HARC J91/4)

The name Llyn Du means ‘black pool’ and the mill was probably at Llandee on the Escley Brook, upstream of Pontys Mill. 

Pontys Mill, Longtown 

NGR: SO335311

Thomas Harrison’s sale document of 1635 records that Gabriell Griffin occupied a water grist mill and a fulling mill at a place called Penticer Therion. (GAEV MAN/A/151/0077, ELSG)

Pontys Mill, north of Longtown on the Escley Brook, appears without a name on Taylor’s map, but the tithe map of 1840 shows it as Pontyrkerthorian.

MILLS ON THE RIVER MONNOW

Old Mill, Forest Mill and Cwm Mill, Craswall

NGR: SO290352, SO295342 and SO302329

There are three mill sites on the upper Monnow in Craswall – Old Mill, Forest Mill and Cwm Mill. Any of these may have been the fulling mill gifted to Craswall Priory by Elizabeth Bigod. Old Mill is the nearest to the priory and its name suggests that it may be the oldest of the three. Cwm Mill was apparently a tuck mill in the early nineteenth century. (Coates & Tucker)

Pontynys Mill, Longtown

NGR: SO326288

From before 1504 the reeve of Ewyas Lacy was collecting six pence a year for work on a millstream. The mill, probably located in Longtown, was in the tenure of William Ap David Vaghan deceased. (HARC G33/1/5) 

A survey presented at Lord Bergavenny’s Court Baron in 1626 says ‘Ph[illip]us Watkin Powell tenet libre…un molendiu Longtowne’ for 12 pence per annum. A marginal note names a later holder as Thomas Eustance. (GAEV D591.13.2)

The survey and rental of Ewyas Lacy for Lord Bergavenny dated 1624–1626 says, ‘Phillipp Watkyn Powell for a mill neere Longtowne 12 pence’. A later marginal note names the holder as William Eustance. (GAEV MAN/A/151/0022)

The 1705 survey of Ewyas Lacy for John Jeffreys, lord of the manor, cites a 99-year lease dated 1700 for ‘All that watercourse or passage of water derived from the River called Monnow running through the lands of the sd John Jeffreys … which sd watercourse doth lead unto a certain Water Grist Mill of the sd William Eustance & is situat[ed] in Longtown … yearly rent of six pence ’. This is presumably the same rental for a watercourse reported in the reeve’s account two centuries earlier. William Eustance also paid one shilling a year for renting the mill and a burgage. (HARC J91/4; GAEV MAN/A/151/0027)

Thomas Eustance sold the house with two water grist mills to Thomas Pritchard of Brooks Farm. 1n 1711 Thomas Pritchard was paying the burgage rent of one shilling. The occupier and presumably miller at the time was Thomas Morris. Thomas Pritchard’s sons, William and John paid off the mortgage in 1740. (GAEV MAN/A/0026; NLW Control No. VTLS005342700 ISYSARCHB720)

Clodock Mill

NGR: SO326274

Although Clodock Mill was one of the early manorial mills, occupying arguably the best watermill site in the upper Monnow catchment, it remained derelict from before 1493 until some time after 1600. A new mill was eventually built on the site by the early- or mid-seventeenth century. 

Sir Trevor Williams’s survey of 1667 refers to a parcel of land with a house and watermill in the township of Longtown, next to Cwmcoched, i.e. in Clodock.

John Delahay, John Watkin Jenkin & David Thomas hold freely to ’em & their heirs severally & not jointly of the Lds of this Manor One Mess[uage]

& Water Grist Mill with the appurt[enance]s in Longtown abutting upon the Lands of Comecochett [Cwmcoched] in Wid Harry Jo. [widow of Henry John’s] hand and the Lands late of the Heirs of John Watkins Jenkin & formerly granted to ’em

For the Messe George Pritchard pays 6d   

For the Lands & Mill David Thomas pays 4

For other of the lands James Powell pays 7

In 1669 when David Thomas made his will he said that he had bought the mill and lands from Robert Parry of Dulas. He left the mill firstly to his wife and on her death to John Delahay of Clodock on condition that Delahay or his heirs paid £60 to be shared between David Thomas’s children. (NLW BR/1669/23)

This bequest appears to have gone ahead because a later but undated note on the 1667 survey stated that the house, the mill and the lands were now all held by William Delahay, presumably John Delahay’s heir. (GAEV MAN/A/151 0023)

When John Jeffreys completed his survey of Ewyas Lacy in 1705, Bennett Delahay held the mill, along with the messuage or house and lands at Cwmcoched. This estate in Clodock now also included the lands previously held by Henry Johns (possibly Ponthendre Farm). (HARC J91/4)

Bennett Delahay also had a lease on the Allterynys estate at Walterstone but he appears to have had financial difficulties. In 1721 he contracted to sell his messuage and lands in Longtown and Llanveynoe to John Maddocks. Presumably this transaction included Clodock Mill because the estate appears to have remained intact.

In 1798 an estate comprising Cwmcoched Farm, Ponthendry Farm and Clodock Mill ‘with 7 Acres of very rich Land’ was unsuccessfully offered for sale by Mr Simon Exton. The mill was eventually sold, separately from the rest of the estate, with about 4½ acres of land, in 1818. (Hereford Journal 18 April 1798; Deeds of Clodock Mill in possession of the owners)

A comprehensive list of the owners of Clodock Mill to the present day can be found at https://www.clodockmill.com

Trewyn Mill

NGR: SO335234

Trewyn Mill, fed by a leat from the River Honddu, was presumably one (or both) of the two mills that were part of the Allterynys estate when Sir Robert Cecil inherited it from his father in 1597. (AW28/41/1)

It is shown on Taylor’s map in 1754. The field names Clapper Meadow and Clapper Orchard on the riverbank opposite suggest that it may have also functioned as a tuck mill.

Goytre, Walterstone

NGR: SO347240

 In 1705 Henry Gabb, gentleman, held free ‘one Messuage and one Mill called Goytrey Mill in Walterstone at the yearly rent of Two pence’. The location is not clear but there is a Cae Vellan (mill field?) by the River Monnow below Vineyard Farm. (HARC J91/4)

Llancillo Forge

NGR: SO377252

A foot of fine refers to the sale of a large estate with two mills in Rowlestone and Llancillo by John Scudamore in 1560. The exact locations are not specified. (NAK CP 25/2/148/1936/ELIZIEASTER)

Llancillo had a working forge in 1637 when another John Scudamore took out a 3-year lease from Thomas Cavendish and his wife.  Brittle pig iron was heated in charcoal furnaces and then converted into workable wrought iron by beating with trip hammers powered by a waterwheel. Later the business was taken over by the Foleys, ironmasters who also had forges at Monmouth and Pontrilas. In 1677/8 the output of iron from Llancillo Forge reached 150 tons. (HARC AL40/888)

MILLS ON THE OLCHON BROOK

Glandwr, Llanveynoe

NGR: SO288316

Taylor’s map of 1754 shows three mill sites on the Olchon Brook in Llanveynoe. One is at Glandwr, another is below Llanveynoe Church and a third is Old Mill Farm near Longtown. The mill at Glandwr is named as ‘Olcon Mill’. An estate named as ‘Llandwr’ with a water corn grist mill was offered for sale by auction in 1798. The exact site of the mill is unknown but millstones have been found in the vicinity. (Hereford Journal 25 July 1798)

Olchon House Farm Mill, Llanveynoe

NGR: SO307299

This recently restored farm mill is shown on Bryant’s map of 1835 as Olchon Mill.

Old Mill, Llanveynoe 

NGR: SO312297

In 1551 a fine recorded the conveyance of a house, watermill, gardens and 30 acres of land at Llanveynoe from Robert Bydell to William ap Harry and his wife, Dyddgu. (NAK CP 25/2/58/428/5EDWVIEASTER)

In 1653 Humphrey George Griffith held a house and mill known as Olghams Mill with 26 acres of land. Its location between Pwll Sond and Hatteral Hill places it in the vicinity of Old Mill Farm rather than higher up the Olchon. (GAEV MAN/A/151 0077)

In 1669 James Watkins obtained a lease on a tenement and mill called Olchon’s Mill with 26 acres by estimation. From 1687 to after 1718 the lease was held by his son, also called James Watkins, for £3 per annum. (HARC J91/4)

In 1776 Walter Jeffreys, the lord of the manor, sold Olchon’s Mill, now in the possession of John Watkins, to John Jenkins. (HARC T24/2)

Upper Ponthendre Tuck Mill, Longtown

NGR: SO325283

A fine of 1579 in a bundle of deeds from Upper Ponthendre refers to the sale of four houses, a mill and 140 acres of land.

In 1717 Michael Morgan raised a mortgage from James Cheese on the ‘water corn grist mill’ occupied by Thomas Watkins, dyer. However, an indenture of 1719 referred to the ‘old decayed tuck mill in poss[ession] of Thomas Watkins near the River Olchon’. In 1721 Michael Morgan let to Thomas Watkins a messuage with ‘an old decayed mill’ and ‘one new erected Tuck Mill for Tucking Cloath adjoining the said old decayed mill’ for four pounds and four shillings every year. (HARC T24/4)

A mid-eighteenth-century map of Longtown Farm (now Tan House Farm) shows a tuck mill at Upper Ponthendre near to the Olchon, just north of the motte at Ponthendre. (HARC R57/1-4)

The course of the headrace from the Olchon to the mill is just visible. According to the present owner it also supplied water to the Tan House. 

Lower Ponthendre, Clodock

NGR: SO326280

Taylor’s county map of 1754 shows a second mill at Clodock on the Longtown road, south of the bridge over the Olchon Brook.

In his will of 1804, William Gilbert left a corn grist mill, late in the occupation of William Harris, to Walter Marsh for the benefit of his son, William Gilbert. In 1817 William Gilbert junior left the mill, now occupied by his mother, Blanch, and her tenant, to his son, William. This William, in his will of 1839, left the farm called Lower Ponthendre with a cottage, garden and site of a water corn mill to his family, so presumably the mill had gone out of use by then. (NAK PROB/11/1456; NLW BR/1817/14; NAK PROB/11/1913)

MILLS ON THE CWM AND DULAS BROOKS

Upper Mill, Rowlestone

NGR: SO370270 & 

A foot of fine refers to a large estate with two mills in Rowlestone and Llancillo in 1560, but the exact locations are not specified. (NAK CP 25/2/148/1936/ELIZIEASTER)

Rowlestone had two mills on the Cwm Brook. Upper Rowlestone Mill was the property of Thomas Price, a carpenter of Rowlestone, and his wife Blanche in 1686 when they raised a mortgage of £60 from Martin Scudamore of Llanvihangel Crucorney. Thomas’s father, William Price, was in possession of the mill before him, when it was mortgaged to William Baskerville. The mill was the subject of a release (generally signifying repayment of a debt) dated 1693, involving the Price family and Bennett Delahay, the leaseholder of both Allterynys and the Clodock estate that included Clodock Mill. Although the mill was perpetually mortgaged the Price family retained their interest into the twentieth century. (HARC AN80/1; AA21/1)

Upper Mill, Rowlestone, still has a working waterwheel that turned two pairs of stones. In later years it was used to power woodworking machinery and an apple scratter.

Lower Mill, Rowlestone

NGR: SO375265

No early documentation for this mill has been found. The house was remodelled in stone in the late seventeenth century, probably replacing earlier timber framing. (RCHME)

Cwm Dulas

NGR: SO361302

Taylor’s county map of 1754 shows a mill at Cwm Dulas. A house called Cwm Dulas with a water grist mill was the subject of a 14-year lease in 1790. (HARC P35/7366)

The mills lower down the Dulas Brook were in the lordship of Ewyas Harold, rather than Ewyas Lacy.

REFERENCES

GAEV Gwent Archives, Ebbw Vale

HARC Herefordshire Archive & Records Centre

NAK         National Archives, Kew

NLW National Library of Wales

DBW Transcriptions kindly provided by Dewi Bowen Williams

ELSG Documents available on the Ewyas Lacy Study Group website

LDHS Documents available on the Longtown & District Historical Soc. website

Coates, S. D. & Tucker, D.G., Water-mills of the Monnow & Trothy, Monmouth District Museum Service, 1978, p. 36. 

Cook, M. & Kidd, N., The March of Ewyas: The Story of Longtown Castle and the de Lacy Dynasty, Logaston, 2020, p. 43.

Duncumb, J., Collections towards the History and Antiquities of the County of Hereford, Vol. II, Merton Priory Press (Cardiff, 1812, 1997 Edition), p. 282.

GAEV D1538.107.1, Hezlett, H., Castles and Manors of Ewyas Lacy, Herefordshire 1829, ELSG

GAEV D1583.107.2, Lordship of Ewyas Lacy with Walterstone manorial accounts by bailiffs 1594–1600, ELSG

GAEV D591.13.2 Survey presented at a Court Baron 1626, DBW

GAEV MAN/A/2/0252 Manor of Ewyas Lacy, survey for Lord Abergavenny 1701, ELSG

GAEV MAN/A/151/0022, Survey and Rental of Ewyas Lacy on the part of Henry Nevill, Lord Bergavenny 1624–1626, DBW

GAEV MAN/A/151 0023,  Survey of the Manor of Ewyas Lacy on the part of Trevor Williams 1667, ELSG

GAEV MAN/A/151/0026 Survey of Ewyas Lacy for Lord Bergavenny 1711, ELSG

GAEV MAN/A/151/0027 Ewyas Lacy Manor Court Baron Records 1711, ELSG

GAEV MAN/A/151/0077, Sale of the Manors of Ewyas Lacy, Wakterstone and Trewaylan to Thomas Harrison 1653, ELSG

HARC AA21/1 Bundle re Rowlestone Mill 1697–1901

HARC AN80/1 Mortgage; mill in Rowlestone

HARC AW28/41/1 Documents relating to Allterynys 1597, ELSG

HARC F94/II/231 & 232 Deed of Partition 1754, ELSG

HARC G33/I/2; G33/I/4; G33/I/5, Ewyas Lacy Accounts 1493 & 1504, DBW

HARC J91/4, Manor of Ewyas Lacy, survey for John Jeffreys 1705, ELSG

HARC P35/7366 Lease of a house and mill Cwm Dulas1790

HARC P82/11/8836 LC Books Release of Mill at Michaelchurch 1642, ELSG 

HARC P82/11/8837 LC Books Sale of Mill at Michaelchurch 1652, ELSG

HARC P82/11/8843 LC Books Mortgage of mill at Michaelchurch 1652, ELSG

HARC R57/1-4 Maps of farms in Longtown, undated

HARC T24/2 Lease to vest possession 1776

HARC T24/4 Bundle of deeds

Longleat DU/VOL.XVII Rental of Ewyas Lacy on the behalf of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, KG 1566, DBW

NAK CP 25/2/58/428/5EDWVIEASTER Foot of fine DBW

NAK CP 25/2/148/1936/ELIZIEASTER Foot of fine DBW

NAK CP 25/2/148/1938/3ELIZIHIL fol 165 Foot of fine DBW 

NAK CP 25/2/149/1973/14/15ELIZIMICH Foot of fine DBW

NAK CP 25/2/149/1981/16/17ELIZIMICH Foot of fine DBW

NAK CP 25/2/149/1981/16/17ELIZIMICH Foot of fine DBW

NAK CP 25/2/152/2054/35/36ELIZIMICH Foot of fine DBW

NAK CP 25/2/153/2058/36/37ELIZIMICH Foot of fine DBW

NAK CP 25/2/300/2JASIEASTER Foot of fine DBW

NAK CP 25/2/300/6JASIEASTER Foot of fine DBW

NAK CP 25/2/300/6JASIMICH Foot of fine DBW

NAK E112/581/47, ELSG Court of Chancery: Bill of Complaint 1686, ELSG

NAK E132/2 JAS2/MICH29 Legal hearings in the Court of Exchequer 1686, ELSG

NAK PROB/11/104/381 Will of Jenkyn Madye 1604, DBW, ELSG

NAK PROB/11/1456 Will of William Gilbert, yeoman 1807, LDHS

NAK PROB/11/1913, LDHS Will of William Gilbert of Hunthouse, yeoman 1839, LDHS

NLW BR/1669/23, Will of David Thomas, yeoman 1669, LDHS

NLW BR/1817/14 Will of William Gilbert, yeoman 1817, LDHS

NLW Control No. VTLS005342700 ISYSARCHB720 Release of mill 1740

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Herefordshire, Vol. 1 – South-West, HMSO, 1931, p. 222