Hauxton mill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (April 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (April 2007) |
The Hauxton Mill is a classic English watermill on the old A10 motorway between Cambridge and Royston, England.
The mill was the last working commercial mill of this type in the area. Commercial activity ceased at the mill in 1972, when the last Miller (Gerald Maurice Arthur "Moss" Turner) liquidated his civil engineering businesses (G.M.A. Turner & Son Ltd) which operated out of the mill and its grounds. The mill at the time belonged to a local landowner (squire) as part of his estate.
The neighboring site was owned by a chemical pesticide company known as "Pest Control" for many years before being bought by Fisons Agrochem in the late sixties. Fisons was later bought by Schering, but while Fisons still owned the plant in the late seventies, the government introduced new laws about chemical plants, which included regulating how close residential and other property could be. In fact, the original mill house was (is?) part of the office complex for the plant. Because of this legislation, Fisons were obliged to buy out the neighboring properties with residential housing. Sadly this included the mill site because of the newer mill house (approx 1922) and mill cottage (rebuilt 1973).
At first, Fisons rented the mill from the landowner, and used the mill itself for storage. Planning permission to convert the building to various different uses was always rejected due to the historic interest. The new mill house was converted to flats, and after another round of legal changes was finally used as an administrative office before falling into disuse in the mid eighties.
The mill was left unattended, with the doors and windows blocked and barred, and gradually fell into a state of disrepair. A grate in front of the mill wheel was removed for now forgotten reasons, and a storm sent a tree crashing into the wooden wheel, effectively ending the operability of the mill around 1980. The grating has since been replaced and the remains of the tree removed.
