Staverton Mill
| Staverton Mill | |
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The mill and chimney in 2007
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 Location in Wiltshire, UK
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| General information | |
| Location | Staverton, Wiltshire |
| Country | England |
| Coordinates | 51°20′49″N 2°12′22″W / 51.347°N 2.206°WCoordinates: 51°20′49″N 2°12′22″W / 51.347°N 2.206°W |
Staverton Mill is an historic woolen mill and now a cereal factory on the River Avon in the village of Staverton near Trowbridge, Wiltshire in the UK.
A mill is first mentioned in the 11th century Doomsday Book at Stavretone. By the end of the 14th century it had become a fulling mill to meet the burgeoning demand for woollen broadcloth, with a stone weir to control flow to the water wheels.
About 1800 the old mill was bought by John Jones. He demolished the old building and erected the current mill. In July 1802 the mill, called the "Staverton Superfine Woollen Manufactory" was attacked as part of a series of disputes about pay. By 1813, Staverton mill had 40 looms.
In 1897, the mill was sold to the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Co. to facilitate expansion of their condensed milk production, after which the top two stories were removed and the building became offices, a canteen and stores. The new owners replaced the water wheel with a 43 horsepower (32 kW) vortex water turbine and installed equipment including 6-foot (1.8 m) copper vacuum pans, coolers, heaters and a basic filling and packing line.
The 19th-century mill chimney was replaced in 1913 when the boiler house was modernised. The new chimney was built in brick by the German firm Alphons Custodis, was 172 feet high with a 6ft 6in diameter, and cost £1,056 to construct. There was a cast-iron water tank built by Dortmund around the chimney, halfway up its height.
The factory's output was sent by rail from Holt Junction station, some 1 1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) distant by road. A large covered loading bay was built at the station in 1909, which remained in use until 1934 when the factory gained a direct connection to the railway.
Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Co. became Nestlé in December 1935 and by 1936 local farmers were supplying more than 5,000,000 imperial gallons (23,000,000 l; 6,000,000 US gal) of milk per annum to be condensed at the mill. A new manufacturing block was constructed on the site in 1935 to improve efficiency, and the top four stories of the mill building's original six were demolished. Two years later, the workforce had increased to 255. The site is labelled "Staverton Condenser" on an Ordnance Survey map published in 1958.
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Wikipedia