More information : Bisseley Mill (SP 3436 7834 FCE) has variously been known as Shortley Mill, pustelomulne, Burstall Milne and Charterhouse Mill. The mill was sited on the River Sherbourne between Altegeder and Dilcock's Mill. Documentary evidence suggests that a mill had stood on this site since at least the twelfth century. Its early ownership is well documented although by the later medieval period its descent is less securely recorded. In the mid-nineteenth century it was in use as a corn mill and by 1875 it had been converted to steam power. Fretton writing in 1878 commented that `the dam which supplied its motive power has been for some years superseded by steam, and is now filled in' (1a). Milling appears to have ceased around 1911-12 and by the first world war the premises were used for the manufacture of motor car bodies. The buildings were damaged by bombing during the second world war and subsequently demolished about 1956 (1b).
The later layout of the mill and its outbuildings was depicted by the Ordnance Survey in 1889, Warwickshire 21.12, when it was described as corn mill. The site of the mill (SJ 3436 7834) is partly occupied by a light industrial building and its yard. Between this building and the precinct wall of the charterhouse (SP 37 NW 10) is a piece of roughly mown grass, no features were visible in this area although a mill leat formerly followed the line of the precinct wall. No trace of the mill or its wheel pits were seen along the River Sherbourne as the River has been straightened and its sides partly revetted.
|