Holme Mill

In January 1614 Edward Talbot was granted permission by Selby, Hodgson and Anderson, lords of Winlaton, to build 'one damme or weare for water for a water Mylne for Iron werkes… in the Lopp of Windlington'. His dam appears on a plan of the 1730s as 'Old Dam'. It lay immediately above Swalwell Ford and probably survived until the road bridge was built in the 1770s. The dam served Holme Mill in The Square at Swalwell. Holme Mill later became the centrepiece of Ambrose Crowley's Swalwell Iron Works. After Talbot's death in 1617 Sir William Blakiston took over the iron mill. The iron works remained in production until 1643 when Holme Mill was damaged by fire. For a while Holme Mill was used as a corn mill by James Clavering. John Clavering had sued William Selby for diverting the water of the Derwent for his coal mills. When the matter was settled by his son James Clavering in 1645, he was to have free occupation of Holme Mill for use as a corn mill. The Civil War ruined the Selbys and so James Clavering bought Holme Mill outright along with 10 keelrooms at Derwenthaugh. Around 1660 Holme Mill was converted into a coalmill. James Clavering died in 1702 and Holme Mill was let for another iron works. A plan of around 1712 shows 'mynd drifts' just north of the mill. These must have been the exhausted Brockwell seam workings of Sir James Clavering.