Isisbridge

Isisbridge club

Posted: 29 May 2014


Taken: 22 May 2014

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chimney
stack
disused
blanket
mill
urban
town
street
Mill Street
Witney
Oxfordshire
England
English
Britain
British
UK
May
2014


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smokeless mill chimney

smokeless mill chimney
last Witney blanket mill
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 Isisbridge
Isisbridge club
The Witney Blanket Story
www.witneyblanketstory.org.uk/WBP.asp?navigationPage=Sites&file=WBPPLACE.XML&record=Witney%20Mill

The extensive area of the Witney Mill complex was based around the site of a Medieval cloth fulling mill known as Woodford or Waterford Mill. It was recorded as a fulling mill as early as 1277 and is probably one of the oldest sites associated with woollen manufacture in Witney. It may be one of the mills recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086.

The earliest structure still standing today is the former offices by the entrance to the mill, probably dating from around 1750; it was originally built as a house. The next oldest surviving building dates from around the 1820s, a period when the Early family began to lease and acquire land piece by piece around this area of Witney. This process continued throughout the 19th century with the Earlys making many new additions to the works including installing a portable steam engine in 1854, installing steam powered looms in 1858, erecting a new engine house and boiler in 1864 and building a power loom shed south of the mill pond in 1865.

In 1888 Charles Early bought the site of the ancient fulling mill of Woodford Mill and soon after that the adjoining flour mill called Witney Mill and some cottages, finally bringing the whole site under a single ownership. The whole site was known from then on as Witney Mill...

The tall brick chimney that can still be seen today dates from 1895...

In the 1960s a large new warehouse and office block designed for more streamlined production methods was added on to an area to the west of the Victorian buildings...

The Victorian parts of the site generally became derelict, but the boiler house and its 110 foot chimney stack was retained as this still supplied heating and hot water to the newer parts of the mill.
2 years ago.

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