South Mill from a 1874 Ordnance Survey Map.
This is the first lock you come to heading south along the River Stort from Bishop’s Stortford. This medium sized market town has given it's name to the river since Saxon times (5th – 11th Centuries). The town probably got it's name from being an expansion of an old Saxon settlement of the Steorta family.
A large Saxon mound, upon which a norman hill-fort, and latterly Waytemore castle were built, still exists in the centre of the town. The Stort was at one stage coursed around the castle to serve as a moat.
The Stort was officially opened as a water-way navigable by large goods carrying boats in 1769. The UK parliament spent £100,000 (£11Million in today's money) widening the river course, making good the banks and installing locks and weirs to maintain water levels. The canal is unique in that it is a river that has been canalised rather than it being a purpose built canal, and it's meandering course has largely been left unmodified or straightened.
Naturally the river has been used as a means of transportation for many years previous to this, with the Vikings using it in the first millennium to plunder the unfortunate people of Hertfordshire.
At Bishop’s Stortford the 'navigation' (the ability for large boats to travel on the river) comes to an end, and plans to extend the canalised river to Cambridge never came to fruition. The tow-path, originally used by horses to pull large and heavily laden boats up and down the river, is well maintained, and today mainly used by ramblers, runners, and cyclists. It provides an attractive way to see the countryside between Stortford, Sawbridgeworth, Harlow and beyond.
The Mill
South Mill watermill.
Established water-mills have been present on most UK rivers since the Norman times (1066). Water wheels were known to the Greeks during the 1st century BC and are thought to have been introduced to this country by the Romans for grinding corn. But it was the Saxons who developed their use in the 8th century. By the time of the Norman Conquest, nearly every household would have ground corn for its own use.
But this all changed with the imposition of the Norman feudal custom called ‘milling soke’. Whereby all grain grown on a lord’s estate had to be ground at the lord’s mill. Owning querns and hand mills was forbidden. As a result water mills up and down the country's water ways multiplied and nearly every manor came to have its own water mill to cope with the demand and reap the rewards. At the time of Domesday Book (1086), South Mill was one of 5,264 recorded mills in operation throughout the land.
As with most watermills, South Mill was situated on the split of the river (not part of the main navigation), and the London Road just north of what used to be the Old Bulls Head pub (now a Thai restaurant).
Although the main use of the mill would have been for grinding corn (from the surrounding farmer's estates), it may also have been used to prepare animal feed, grind flint, drive water pumps, and for stone crushing amongst other things. As with many watermills in the country, it’s use would have begun to diminish with the onset of the Victorian industrial revolution, with the increased demand for flour more easily satisfied by factories with reliable high speed rollers powered by steam and electric.
South Mill was eventually taken over by the larger mill at Sawbridgeworth in 1937, and then turned into a furniture store in 1955 before being destroyed by fire in the late 1970s.
The Lock
Painting of South Mill Lock as a turf-sided lock.
Situated about 500 metres south of the mill is South Mill Lock. Cross over the London Road to re-join the towpath. You will pass under the railway bridge and eventually come to the lock and old lock-keepers cottage.
There is records of a turf-sided lock with a bridge for the tow-path to cross over, having existed here since 1769, it was latterly rebuilt in brick and concrete in 1923. There were often conflicts between mills and lock-keepers as to how much water the lock should dam. The lock-keepers favoured greater amounts (around 9ft), so larger boats could safely traverse the lock, whereas and the mill owners preferred a maximum of 6ft, so as not to disrupt the flow of the river too much and keep their mill wheel turning at a steady speed.
Locks were typically installed on or near hills or changes in ground level and basically they insure the water doesn't run away down hill. South Mill Lock is what is known as a "Pound Lock". Used almost exclusively nowadays on canals and rivers, a pound lock has a chamber (the pound) with gates at both ends that control the level of water in the pound. In contrast, an earlier design with a single gate was known as a "Flash Lock". Pound locks have a far less dramatic effect on water levels when used to let boats through, and therefore were encouraged and often named after nearby mills.
