There has been a mill on the site at Kingsley since Saxon times. The Saxons had a thirst for power and it seems not a stream in the land was left unharnessed. Within 10 miles of Kingsley 28 mills could be counted - Acton, Arley, Milton, Cuddington (3), Peck's Mill, Randall's, Barrow, Tarvin, Duddon, Oulton, Willington, Cote Brook, Little Budworth, Marbury, Grimsditch, Cogshall, Frodsham (2), Cattenhall, Crowton (2), Bradley, Bradford, Northwich, Peover & Lostock Gralam ...
The original Mill was little different from all the others in terms of the gearing, mill stones, flour dressing machines and grain drying but water power for Kingsley was difficult, there were four small streams but not one of them could power a wheel. These early Saxon engineers were clever. They chose an unlikely site on marshy ground with no high banks between which they could build a dam, but they diverted the two main streams into a pool and by doing so raised the water level some 29 feet above the natural level. They found a way to free the water when it had done its work and insured the pool did not silt up. They built on the site of a spring to conserve its power and flow ... they performed a miracle ...
Then, and in later Norman times, the mill was controlled by the Lord of the Manor, a system which lasted until the late 1600s. In those days the farmers had no alternative but to send their wheat to the Lord's mill for the production of flour for bread and chaff for meal. The miller paid in kind, it was a stitch up ... but everybody gravitated to the mill ... the mill was the social centre of village activity and stories abound ...
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