Brimscombe Upper and Lower Mills

The Upper and Lower Mills at Brimscombe were run together under a single owner or tenant. In 1539 John Bigg leased two fulling mills at Brimscombe and in 1594 Ursula Bigge of Stroud owned the mills and Bigges Place. When Roger Fowler died in 1626 his will mentioned the house called Bigges Place, together with two fulling mills, a gig mill and corn mill. In 1648 Henry Fowler of Minchinhampton conveyed 'all those ffullinge mille gig mille and grist mille and barn', all of which were occupied by Henry Mayo, to William Webb of Stroud, clothier. In 1705 the property, occupied by Thomas Pointin, was conveyed to Brice Seed. In 1733 Brice Seed and Walter Davis conveyed 'all that fulling mill consisting of three stocks and a gig mill ... and the new erected building standing near to the mill pond designed for a grist mill but now converted into a messuage or tenement', to John Dallaway who occupied the premises at the time.

In 1760, the site comprised fulling, gig mills and 'the knapping mill house', a scouring dyehouse and blue dyehouse. In 1790 William Dallaway conveyed Bigges Place, the range of buildings lately erected by William and James Dallaway, the fulling and gig mills, the knapping mill, the scarlet, blue and scour- ing dyehouses, the shear shops and buildings called the wood house, warehouse and coal ash house to Joseph Lewis, miller. In 1838 Joseph Lewis had one power loom and thirty-one handlooms employed and twenty-nine unemployed handlooms at the mills. After Joseph Lewis's death the mills were worked by Archer Blackwell and John Remington, later by William, John and George Lewis, and by 1840 by William Lewis alone. Lower Mill was rebuilt in 1843 and in that year Lewis went bankrupt and the mills were offered for sale. The property was bought by John Ferrabee, who also bought all the machinery in the mills except the stock, gigs and gearing. A detailed inventory of the machinery was made and this is the earliest date for which there is any information about the uses to which each of the two mills were put. The 'Large Mill', presumably Upper Mill, was devoted to wool and yarn preparation and dyeing, while weaving was located at Lower Mill. In 1845 the mills were again for sale. Two steam engines are mentioned in the particulars and John Webb was said to be occupying the mills, while Christopher Smith occupied the dyehouses. The property was bought by Samuel Stephens Marling who leased it in the same year to Thomas William and Thomas Coke White of Monks Mill, Alderley. Upper Mill had an iron waterwheel and a 40hp steam engine. There were eight pairs of iron fulling stocks and four broad gig mills. Lower Mill contained three waterwheels, a 20hp steam engine, and six pairs of iron stocks, six gig mills. There was no mention of looms.

In 1858 Samuel Stephens Marling leased Brimscombe Upper and Lower Mills to P.C. Evans and John William Bishop, clothiers. P.C. Evans was the son of Aaron Evans who worked one of the mills in the Toadsmoor Valley. The schedule which follows on the deed shows that the uses of the various floors in the Upper Mill probably remained much the same. The fulling stocks had been removed and two fullers by Ferrabee and two by Buck had been installed in their place. One waterwheel and the stocks had been removed from the Lower Mill. An indenture attached to the deed records alterations made by Marling at the cost of £3,865. He erected a new loom shed and a building around 64ft by 27ft which was to be a new willy and oiling house and mechanic's shop. The open air stove was converted into a closed warehouse 'by building up the former chequered brick work walls'. He agreed to erect a building at the Lower Mill where P.C. Evans could install his dyeing machinery. In 1889, P.C. Evans & Sons had 124 looms and 6,400 spindles at the two mills. More details are given in Worrall's Directory two years later: there were 5,670 mule and 818 doubling spindles for woollen yarn and 1,540 spinning and 770 doubling spindles for worsted yarn. The looms had been increased to 144. In 1920 the firm amalgamated with Marling & Co. Ltd at Stanley and Ebley. Little work was done at Brimscombe after that and the mills were eventually sold. The two mills are illustrated in Industrial Gloucestershire. The Upper Mill consisted of a large, wide range with a tall chimney adjacent and a number of smaller buildings. The main mill building has been demolished. The former dyehouses, adjoining the pond and what was probably the counting house, remain. Lower Mill consisted of one main range of three distinct sections. This mill was burnt down between 1918 and 1930 when it was used as a teazle store for P.C. Evans & Sons. After the Second World War Upper Mill was Lewis & Hole's iron foundry, Lower Mill being an electro-plating works. In 1967 Perolin Chemicals acquired the site. Little remains of the original textile factory buildings. Bigges Place was demolished for road widening.

Sources:

A history taken from "Wool & Water": The Gloucestershire Woollen Industry And and its Mills, by Jennifer Tann; P.H. Fisher, Notes and Recollections of Stroud, p.8; PRO E315/394; D873b; D873 E12; D181/III/T9; PP 1840, XXIV, pp. 396–7; D1159; G.R.O. D1241, Sale Particulars; Kelly's Textile Directory 1889)

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