Dulcote Paper Mill (later Dulcote Leather Board Mill) ruins behind Old Mill House, east of bridge

The Earliest Mills  . . . 

In his article on "The Land of the Bishop of Wells", Tony Nott, piecing together the details of the Domesday surveys of 1085 with other existing records and academic study, suggests that there was already a small operating grist mill in Dulcote in the eleventh century.¹  

The existence of such a mill is certainly confirmed in 1587 with the probated will of the mill operator, Joanne Gallington, who leaves what is clearly her long-standing mill in need of occasional repair to her son Robert.  She lists the assets as

The Early Millers of Dulcote . . . 

But the question arises as to the location of an earlier mill.  We would like to suggest the possibility that it was east of the bridge but in a slightly different location a bit further upstream to the Dulcote mills of future centuries.  We suggest that the mill was located a bit more off the road based on the following  pieces of evidence . . .

The Paper Mills . . .

In the latter part of the seventeenth century, and the entire eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, paper was manufactured at Dulcote.  The paper was rag-based, made from discarded linen clothing.  There were two paper mills in Dulcote.  An indenture dated 1696 for the mill to the west of the bridge indicates that there was already an operating paper mill in Dulcote at this time, more than fifty years before the mill to the east of the bridge.  The mill and dwelling-house for this mill seems to have been attached to each other.  Evidence of this premise exists in the following auction description of the building as "a substantially-built dwelling-house ... attached to the Mill House is an undershot water wheel with shafting attached and the existing water rights in the River Sheppey."⁴  After the closure of the west mill, this building was used at some point as the dairy house for Bridge Farm until it was leased by the late nineteenth/early twentieth century operator of Mill Farm and sub-divided into 2 cottages. 

Although it is not clear whether the mill located to the east of Dulcote Bridge had an attached dwelling-house initially or not, later versions of its operations separated the dwelling-house from the mill.   When it was opened as a paper mill after 1748, it was a larger operation than the mill to the west of the bridge.  According to various records, this mill was known under such names as Brush Mill and Dulcote Paper Mill.  There is also a survey circa 1785 identifying various parcels of land leased by John Day including the east mill which was known as The White Mill Estate.  Before it was a paper mill, this east mill operated as a grist mill on property owned by Lord Brooke of Warwick Castle.  In the mid-eighteenth century, under its lease to John and William Ellis, the grist mill fell into disrepair when the Ellis family had been unable to maintain the premises.  A lease dated 1748 describes the water grist mill and mill house as "tumbled down". Thus in forfeit of the conditions of their lease, the heirs of the deceased John Ellis surrendered it to John Hawkins who paid Ellis' fine.³  In his lease, Hawkins also agreed to rebuild it as a paper mill and to keep it in good repair.  

The history of the various landlords of the two mills is to say the least complicated, to say the most convoluted.  During the reign of the Tudors, long-term control of the land on which the the east mill stood which transferred from amongst the monarch's favourite loyal subjects.  But by 1771, the long-term leasehold of this land was sold to Clement Tudway who continued to lease the business to a succession of mill managers and paper makers from thenceforth until its twentieth-century sale. On the other hand, long-term leasehold control of the west mill, held originally by the Vicars Choral at Wells, was granted to the Baron family of Wells and, in the possession of this family, there was in a precarious state of financial juggle until it was purchased from the heirs of James Baron in 1842 by Robert Charles Tudway.  Thus, as with almost all the land and buildings held by freehold, leasehold or copyhold in Dulcote by the mid-nineteenth century, control of both these Dulcote mills was in the hands of the Tudway family of Wells. 

Only slightly less complicated is the history of the succession of paper makers operating the mills in Dulcote (see charts below).  The more successful paper makers were those who could do a volume business, and it was often the case in Somerset that the same family of paper makers leased more than one mill at a time.  For instance, in the latter part of the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth century, the Snelgrove family of paper makers leased 3 mills at Dulcote, Wookey Hole, and Bleadney, and owned one small mill besides.  

By the late nineteenth century, the operations of both Dulcote mills were being challenged by their business competition. Paper makers at Wookey Hole were developing larger, more mechanized paper mills.  The west mill in Dulcote ceased paper production by the mid-nineteenth century, and by 1878, it had been converted into a saw mill. The east mill at Dulcote, on the other hand, met the challenge of its paper-making competitors in 1875 making both paper, millboard and/or leather board, a paper-based product used in the stiffening of insoles and ankle supports of footwear. In the late 1890's, the east mill was converted entirely to leather board manufacturing and continued operating as a manufacturing firm until 1904.

Only adding to the production challenges at both mills was the fact that they were both plagued by fires. The west mill burnt down at least twice -- in 1769 and in 1886.  The east mill was also ravaged by fire twice time in its history -- in 1850 and 1904. 

The Tudway family sold the land and buildings of these former mills at auction in July, 1913.  The only remains of the east mill is its smoke stack and foundations lie in ruins to the rear of the mill house, a private residence today.  The west mill today exists only as a buildings/ruins on Mill Farm. 

Sketch of West Mill Operation at Dulcote in 1842 p

                  West Mill Ruins Today  p

Sketch of buildings of East Mill made by operator for insurance purposes  p

                            Ruins of East Mill u
                                                                                          photo courtesy B. Luker

Dulcote (East) Mill Basic Equipment 1868

Main Mill
* Wheel house/ water wheel
* Iron fly wheel
* Iron wheel washing engine
* Vat hog 
* Vat press with large wheel; 2 additional presses
* 4 Washing troughs
Engine House
* Iron plate boiler
* Iron piping to connect with steam pipes in mill
Bleach House
* Pump worked by cog wheel on water wheel & piping to cistern
* Rag duster driven by water wheel
* Rag boiler with steam pipe and tap
Rolling Room
* Glazing rolls with driving wheels/shafting to connect with water wheel
* Long wood bench 
Size House
* 2 Lead lined sizing vats
* Double wood vat connected to steam boiler
*Lead piping from settling pond 
Picking Room
* 2 very long benches 
Drying Loft
* 1,800 rods for drying; 6 lattice wire frames

The Papermakers of Dulcote ⁵. . .