The medieval tide mill at Granite Wharf

 

In 2008 I encountered a strange sight in Trafalgar Road. Local History librarian Julian Watson was walking along the road and, like the Pied Piper, gathering more followers as he went.  The word had gone out that a medieval tide mill had been found by archaeologists on Granite Wharf the day before, and we could go and see it.

 

Granite Wharf is, or was, the next section on the riverside path after Lovell’s. Both are now called Riverside Gardens, but there is a Granite House to remind us of the old wharf name.

 

That morning in 2008 was all very exciting. Some chap - and I don’t know who he was - gave an explanation of what they had found. We all took pictures, and mine, the first photo I had ever taken with a hand held, went on the front of Greenwich Time.  There was even more excitement when we learnt that the timbers dated from 1194 – which put them well within the time of the Ghent ownership of the site.  We were also told that more investigation was needed.  And that was – er – twelve years ago. 

 

Perhaps I should explain about tide mills – which are mills worked by water power – but by the power of the incoming tides rather than bubbling mill streams. Tide mills are usually about industry – they absolutely aren’t about your jolly miller grinding up local corn so Mr. Baker can bake your bread!  If you want to see a really big industrial tide mill which was working into the 1940s, go to Three Mills, which is at the back of Tesco on the southbound Blackwall Tunnel approach over on the other side of the River.  It’s a huge and very very impressive site – find out when they are open for visits again at https://housemill.org.uk/

 

There were tide mills all up and down the Thames. There was also an early 19^th century one on the Peninsula – it was over where The Jetty is now, and we’ll get to it eventually.  There was another very old tide mill at Deptford Bridge, and down at Ebbsfleet near Northfleet was one of the oldest ever found on the Thames. See https://webapps.kent.gov.uk/KCC.ExploringKentsPast.Web.Sites.Public/SingleResult.aspx?uid=%27mke20281%27

 

So what did they actually find at Granite Wharf?  A mechanical digger had exposed some massive timber beams, close to the river front. More digging revealed further flooring and they could tell there had been two phases of building this floor. There were chalk foundations and some scraps of mill stone mixed in with it. They could identify where the river water had entered the mill site and timbers associated with it.  ‘A woven hazel panel' was also found.

There was no sign of the mill pond - which would have been inland of the mill building.

 

The Museum of London wood expert described the woodwork they had found and talked about the history of carpentry – which apparently is different from older ‘tree wright’ Saxo-Norman techniques.  ‘Carpentry’ was an Arabic skill which was being introduced into England from France. It included technology for prefabricated framing, and the joints would have carpenters’ marks. All the wood used in the mill was oak and most had come from trees felled in 1194. Carpentry techniques had been used on most of what they found. These timbers were to be sent for conservation, to York where they would be impregnated with polyethylene glycol.

 

The base timber of the wheel pit was a single three foot wide oak log - like a dug-out canoe. Part of the mill wheel was found in this pit and it was thought to have had 60 paddles and one of these paddles had survived.  It was thought from other evidence that the mill had been dismantled after it went out of use and that no accident or fire had ended its useful life

 

The archaeologist said how important the mill was - of national significance.

 

So what happened next? We were given to understand that there was no time to do a complete dig on the site but that they would be back and that there would be a study done. However I don’t honestly know if archaeologists did come back and finish the dig, if they did they made no contact that I am aware of and I have see no reports.  I also have no idea what happened to those timbers which went to York. Recently I've been told that a study is now ongoing and will be published soon.  Hopefully we’ll get to see that when it comes out and maybe be able to open a dialogue on this important site.

 

In a couple of previous articles I wrote about the ownership of this area in the Middle Ages by St.Peter’s Abbey Ghent. It seems very likely that the mill was owned and operated by them. Perhaps it was used to process all the produce which came from their estates in Greenwich and Lewisham – and of course the lands at Cowden in Kent - and then it was shipped off to Ghent. Dare I suggest that it was not necessarily processing food stuffs?  It would be good to know if the archaeologists final report will include an assessment of the evidence at the archive in Ghent –and will that build on the hard work which has been done in Greenwich on the Ghent ownership.  Will all the evidence of carpentry techniques used in the mill be compared to work in Ghent? Will there be any suggestions of what might have been milled there?

 

The archaeologist who worked on the site thanked the developer who, he said wanted to build a replica of the mill on site to encourage future house purchasers. Some years ago I did try to get a plaque about the mill put up at the site – or even a simple paper poster in a frame.  I was told the developer said he couldn’t afford it!

 

This was an important site – it would be good to know more – and for that knowledge to be made public. All those people moving onto the site will know nothing of what was found there – wouldn’t it be good if they could be told.

 

Information about the medieval mill can be found very briefly in lists of archaeology undertaken by MOLA in 2006-7.  Greenwich Industrial History blog published an account of a talk given by Simon Davis the archaeologist concerned at https://greenwichindustrialhistory.blogspot.com/2009/04/greenwich-medieval-tide-mill.html.. He gave a number of talks at the time and there will be accounts in other journals etc.