A magnetic cache to show you this beautiful area.there is plenty of nearby parking.
Coxes Lock was built between 1651 and 1653, as part of an important link to transport heavy goods between London and Guildford. The Lock contains a stone inscribed "Built 1770" when improvements were made to the structure and banks. Coxes Lock is the deepest unmanned lock on the Navigation with a rise of 8 feet 6 inches (2.59 m) - and is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the Thames.
In 1776 an iron entrepreneur, a Mr Cox, recognised the potential that the site offered and started to build his iron mill which became known as Coxes Lock Mill.
The three mill buildings (closely grouped and named Alexander Raby Mill, Daniel Lambert Mill and John Bunn Mill) were a mixture of industrial mill/foundry and accommodation for 207 years. They are now apartments but include a heritage section left untouched. The industrial importance is shown by the closure - on 8 April 1983 - making Coxes Mill the last commercially operated mill in Surrey - a stream-laden county that had in the medieval period more than 6 mills in 1066 and many more in the centuries after acting as a multi-power sources for grain pounding then later also for paper and metal manufacture.
The mill was powered by the waterwheel (drawing its power from the small headwaters locally and large mill pond). The unusually large mill pond was dug to overcome fluctuating water levels caused by the operation of the lock and millstream - it uses a sill at its main downstream entrance to help preserve its level.
Allowing more water down the millstream as the mill expanded became a contentious issue between the mill who favoured this and the commercial barge owners. To avoid grounding most of the year the large mill pond was excavated - but without seeking agreement with the Navigation Commissioners.
In 1808 the lease of the mills was passed from Alexander Raby, an ironmaster from South Wales, to John Bunn who converted it to flour production in the 1830s. Mill owners were well-versed in having to change usage to survive. The mill saw spells of its wheels and linked pulleys used for a silk weaving business for a short period.
Adopting new technology at the end of the 19th century, Coxes was financially strong enough to invest, and unlike many of its contemporaries further upstream went from strength to strength. The mill was rebuilt in 1901 and extended in 1906, becoming one of the most important industrial buildings in the country at the time.
New machinery technology and powerful engines saw the demise of waterpower at the mill when power sources switched at first to steam and lastly to electricity. By the mid 1960s a great wheat silo standing at 137 ft (42 m) had been constructed with a further flour silo erected in 1969. The mill joined with 21 other mills in the country and by this stage was producing 60 tonnes of flour each day.