Haggerstones Mill/Fenwick's Mill

A ‘well known and well accustomed water corn mill, called Haggerstone’s Mill, being a populous situation, belonging to the Lords of Winlaton, and now occupied by Robert Turnbull as tenant’ was advertised to be let on the 15 April 1783
[Newcastle Chronicle]. Robert Trumble was still tenant in 1790, paying 15/- for a 16th part [NRO ZCO IV/41], but by 1796 had been succeeded by Thomas Wood [NRO ZCO IV 35]. The location of this mill is confirmed by an undated but probably late 18th century plan [DRO D/X 35/5] which shows a large building called ‘Winlaton Manor Mill’, almost identical in footprint to, and clearly on the site of, the Haggerston’s Mill marked on the 1st edition OS of 1856.

There is no mention of the mill in the Silvertop (Dockendale) rentals for 1804, but in 1823 Matthias Dunn claimed, on behalf of P.E.Townely, the site of the mill dam and race now used by the Lords of Winlaton for Haggerstone’s Mill, the said lords only having right or privilege of water passing along their estate. [NRO 404/238].

In 1823 John Fenwick is given as tenant of a ‘messuage, mill, garth and land’ [NRO 404/238, 74] and about two years layer a ‘Corn Mill with 2 pair of stones’ occupied by the heirs of John Fenwick were valued at £25p.a. In 1825 the mill building was described as being out of repair, though the dam and other features were in ‘fair condition’ [NRO 404/ 238, 106].

A corn mill called ‘Fenwick’s Mill’, which is clearly on the same site as ‘Haggerston’s Mill’ is shown on a plan of Stella Freehold Estate in 1837 [DRO NCB 1/ SC/1000], and marked as ‘Corn Mill’ on another plan of that year [DRO D/X 35/16], and appears again on the 1838 Tithe map [ASC Tithe Winlaton] (Figure 19). The identification of ‘Fenwick’s Mill’ with the site marked as such on the 1st edition OS is again confirmed by an early 19th century section showing the heights of the mill dams and falls in water level along the Burn [ASC Z GBP/67].

By 1841 some confusion arises over the identity of Fenwick’s Mill. The Census returns for Winlaton Township that year give only two mills - a Flint Mill (which can be equated with the High Mill, Gazetteer 20), and ‘Fenwick’s or Haggerston’s Mill’ . Here there were two households: one was that of the miller, Robert Stokoe, aged 50, his wife Mary and their two children Jane, 15, and William, 10. The other family was that of an agricultural labourer, Joseph March, his wife Ann and four daughters aged from 1 month to 15 years [DRO M 27.4].

Ten years later, in 1851, and only ‘Fenwick Mill’ is listed. The miller was now Charles Robson, aged 62, a native of Glanton in Northumberland, with his wife Elizabeth, who was born in Kirkwhelpington. The Robsons had two sons, Joseph, 13, a coal miner, and Robert, 11, a labourer at the Brick Works, and two daughters, Jane and May aged 9 and 1 respectively [DRO M3/38]. Seventeen other households are listed under ‘Fenwick Mill’ in the census, but it seems unlikely that these were all actually living within the premises.

In 1861, perhaps because of the influence of the 1858 Ordnance Survey in establishing placenames, only ‘Haggerstones Mill’ is listed in the Census [DRO M9/27]. Two households are again mentioned. One was that of Barbara Fenwick, a Spinster, aged 45, and the other Robert and Jane Wintrip, and their young sons William and Robert. Robert Wintrip senior is described as aged 27 and a Flint Miller [Census]. As there is no evidence that Haggerstone’s Mill was ever used for flint milling, it is possible that Robert Wintrip was actually working the High Mill/Dunn’s Mill.

In 1871 ‘Haggerston’s Mill’ was occupied by a widow, Ann Bagnall, her sons Joseph, 26 and William, 24, both File Cutters, Richard, 22, Hardwareman, daughter Hannah Minto Bagnall, 14, her neice Thomason Gray and a ‘Servant and File-cutter’ William Watson. These Bagnalls appear to be related to the firm of R.S. Bagnall & Sons, in 1855-6 makers of chains, nails, spades, shovels and hinges, who also carried out all types of Engine Work in their branches at Winlaton and the High Forge, Swalwell [Hodgson]. By this date the power source of the mill had presumably been converted to power a forge.

In 1881, the last time the mill appears, only Ann Bagnall and her son William, described as a merchant, were in residence. It was disused and apparently derelict by 1898, and by 1913-14 the mill site had been subsumed under extensive railway sidings and buildings associated with Priestman Collieries’ use of Blaydon Burn Colliery.

No visible remains upstanding. Associated with Fenwick’s/Haggerstone’s Mill (42). The earliest representation of these features is on a plan of c.1823 (Figure 19), though there appears to have been a mill here since at least 1769. The line of the mill pond is just visible amongst the undergrowth but the area was considerably overgrown. Overgrown.