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THE LEN WATER-MILLS

By R. J. SPAIN

INTRODUCTION;

This study is but a sum total of existing knowledge available at the time of composition. Nearly all the material involved is culled from local public and private MS. collections and printed sources. Conse¬quently this history of the Valley Mills is predominantly concerned with the last four centuries. Nevertheless, this shortcoming is well balanced by the richness of the period. In these centuries the total number of water-mills reached a maximum as did the number of water-mills devoted to fulling and papermaking. In Arch. Cant., lxxi, Robert Goodsall wrote a most interesting paper on this same subject entitled Watermills on the River Len'. Since then a considerable number of documents related to the mills has been deposited in the Kent Archives Office, the most important of these being the Leeds Castle Estate muniments. Added to these accessions are extracts from local history books, descriptions of the remaining mills and knowledge contributed by various people acquainted with the mills.

FAIRBOURNE MILL

In the light of our present knowledge it seems very likely that there was a mill at Fairbourne when the Domesday Survey was under¬taken. However, in fact, our first reference is dated 1580. It is to be found in a 'Book of Quit Rents of Several Manors in Kent belonging to Galfridon Mann Esq.' dated 1750.1 The handwritten entries nearly all date from an original of 1579-80 including the rents for two manors then existing in Harrietsham, East Farbourne and Holmill. Rents for East Farbourne include:

One year's rent of a messuage a tenement a Barn a Garden a Watermill a Pond or Pool and 4 pieces of land containing by estimation 20 acres of land whereof one piece is called Millandes and one other piece is called. Beggershill late of Edward Chamber, William Chamber and Nicholas Chamber lying and being in Harrietsham. Beside this account is the rent of nine hens. Further on a few pages an identical set of entries for the manor dated the same year arewritten. Without exception all the rents are commuted to money. For Fairbourne Mill two pence were paid instead of nine hens. In a list of mills dated 1608 owned by James 12 occurs: `Watermill, Fulborne, demised to Thomas Cakebread £2. 13. 4.' This may refer to Fairbourne Mill, but some doubt exists. Much of the royal milling property was disposed of shortly after this list was made and the mill at Fairbourne may have been included. Certainly no further evidence of royal ownership is known. A rent roll of the Manor of Harrietsham 1694 in the possession of Robert Goodsall mentions the occupier of Fairbourne Mill: `Edward Hickmut (script damaged) Mills.' The mill appeared on various maps throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with one of the first being of 1728.3 An interesting reference in the Archives to Fairbourne Mill is to be found in a collection of documents concerning the Manor and Lordship and Castle of Leeds, variously dated.4 One of these documents, a deed dated 1768 includes: `. . . and also all that one messuage or tenement with the millhouse whereon a Water Corn Mill had formerly stood. . . in the parish of Ulcombe and were heretofore part of the inheritance of Joseph Hatch long since deceased and now in the occupation of Thos. late Lord Culpeper and Thomas Stiles.' The property mentioned was part of lordship of Farbone alias West Farbone together with all those two Water Corn Mills under one roof'. The parties in the transfer were Francis Martin, widow, daughter of Right Honourable Catherine Lady Fairfax, and the Rev. Denny Martin of Leeds. How old was the former corn mill? We have no way of telling. The existing mill of this period had two pairs of stones. Apparently, even as late as mid-eighteenth century, to have these under one roof is noteworthy. We are very lucky in having detailed information of the mill during the late eighteenth century in the form of two old mill ledgers. They were found by Mr. L. V. and Mr. T. V. Clark in 1929 when sorting the effects of the late Thomas Clark, 1838-1929, miller of Fairbourne and Corn Merchant. Later the ledgers were donated to Swadelands Secondary Modern School, Lenham, to form part of the School Museum. Mr. Turner, the headmaster, very kindly allowed me to examine them at length.