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From The Muniment Room, a resource for social history, family history, and local history.

Wootton Mill was a tidal mill on the Isle of Wight Estates, at Wootton Bridge, with a causeway (the 'Bridge') separating the creek from the tidal millpond above, and some cottages.

It was originally leased to the Fleming Estate in 1700 for 40 years, at the same time as the freehold was sold to Richard Holloway, the Fleming Estate's bailiff^[1]. The freehold was acquired by the Fleming Estate in 1774^[2].

The mill building was demolished in 1962.

Contents 1 Tenants 2 Description, 1793[5] 3 Related documents 4 References

Tenants

• James Perry (18thC)
• William Souter (19thC^[3])
• Leonard J Souter (1913^[4])

This article about a mill on the Fleming Estate is a stub. You can help The Muniment Room by expanding it.

Description, 1793^[5]

'What is called Wootton Bridge, is a long, narrow causeway, more than three hundred yards in length, over which the high road passes from Newport to Ryde, and which, till lately, when there was no railing to it, was very terrific to the travelling stranger. The danger is not, even now, entirely removed; for the hatches of the mill, placed about midway on this pass, instead of being drawn up within the mill, or perpendicularly against the outside of it, while it is grinding, project obliquely about two feet over, and above the road, which in this part is not more than nine feet wide. The danger is with the more difficulty to be guarded against, as, when the mill is stopt, there is no appearance of a hatch above the surface of the road.

'A family had almost fatally experienced, two years since, this great nuisance; for the coachman, observing a plain level, between the mill and the railing, in the day-time, was net aware, on his return by night, of the projection of the hatches, and consequently, drove violently against them, which threw the coach on the opposite rails, from whence, its fall being for a short time broken, it was laid flat, and covered the whole of the road. The carriage, of course, was much damaged; but, fortunately, tho' there were six persons in it, not one was materially injured. It is to be hoped, that this public nuisance may be removed; or, at least, that the unwary passenger may be apprized of his peril, by some light to direct him, when the hatches are projected, and the mill is working.

'This causeway was erected across the creek, for the purpose of penning back the tides, which, by the means of a strong sluice and floodgate, placed in its quickest current, receives and retains the full flow of the sea. A few hours after the ebb commences, the return of this water serves to work the corn mill above noticed; the pool is again supplied by the following tide.'

Related documents

• Account of repairs to a Mill, abt.1730
• Bundle 32: Documents relating to Wootton Bridge Mill (1690-1855)

References

1. ↑ Lease of Wootton Mill, 1700  (WFMS:647 | IOWRO FLM/171)
2. ↑ Bargain and sale of Wootton Mill, 1774  (WFMS:649 | IOWRO FLM/173)
3. ↑ Remarks by Arthur Arnold concerning Binstead Foreshore and other historical matters, 1928
4. ↑ Counterpart lease of Wootton Mill, 1913  (WFMS:1477 )
5. ↑ Henry Penruddocke Wyndham, A Picture of the Isle of Wight: Delineated Upon the Spot, in the Year 1793‎ (1794)