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Tiltys watermill is probably one of the last surviving original 18th century watermills in the country.
It is intact and still its millpond (now empty), and mill race survive.
The machinery inside the mill has not been touched since the wheel last turned about 60 years ago, (rumoured to be 1957), and is intact- hopefully to turn again if and when restored. The first mention of a watermill at Tilty is from 1224 from a lawsuit between a local landowner (Sir Ralph Moigne) and Tilty Abbey 'due to the cistercian monks diverting the course of the river to their newly erected mill and fishponds'.
So it seems that the original mill was built about the same time as the current Tilty church by the monks of Tilty Abbey.
Another reference in a deed of 1330 is in the Essex Record Office (ERO), and then the next reference i find is 1535 when the abbey lands were surrendered to the crown and then the marchioness of Dorset, this lists MILLS (presumably the water and windmill).
In 1588 the abbey lands were bought by Henry Maynard, private secretary to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, and the watermill was listed but was not in good order.
The 1594 agas map shows 'melle' in very feint grey characters on this beautiful map, why is it not shown more clearly?
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| Tilty Mill Rear View (detail) |
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