The Bourtons - Mill Lane Stroll

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Mill Lane - A Stroll Through Time

by Brian P Cannon

PART 1 Mill Lane

Mill Lane runs from Foxden Way to Slat Mill which was first recorded in 1482 so it would have been busy with horse and carts going to and from the Mill for hundreds of years. During the English Civil War Sir William Waller was with his Parliamentarian army on the high ground at Bourton watching the Royalist army moving north up the valley. It is well documented that Waller took his men across a ford at Slat Mill to engage the Royalist army in the battle of Cropredy Bridge in 1644. In doing so he would almost certainly have travelled down Mill Lane. In this July's deluge the lane was badly damaged by torrents of water cascading down it but it is not owned by adjacent landowners and the local authorities are not keen to repair it.

Until the 1980's I was involved with farming the land bounded by the A423 & the A361 which included Spittals - Home - Prospect - Pewet Farms and Home Farm Williamscote where we were based. I had to use the lane every day and came across several amusing incidents. Between Foxden Way & the Railway the lane passes Crow Patch, Top Adams, Bottom Adams and Seed Ground on the north side and Little Good & Big Swans on the South side. Prior to Bourtons enclosure in 1778 there were no internal hedges between Mill Lane and the Cropredy road. It was an open ridge and furrow landscape with many tenants having so many strips each and giving a percentage of their crops to their landlord as rent. In 1778 the land was enclosed into fields and the hedges were planted, meaning that only a few farmers had use of the land. Ditches were dug on the field boundaries and the soil was thrown back onto their land and they then planted the hedges on it. This is why the ditch belongs to the field on the hedge side. Over the years most of the ridges have been levelled but there are still some good examples remaining.

Mill Lane was often used by couples during the office lunch hour and once, while taking sheep over the railway I had to knock on a car door and the occupants did not have a stitch on but did not seem a bit concerned!

Little Mill Crossing

There used to be a crossing keeper who lived in a cottage on the north east side of the track. There was a cast iron sign on railings by the cottage saying Little Mill Crossing but one would have thought that Slat Mill Crossing would have been more appropriate. The last crossing keeper was Tommy Lewis and I have a film of him playing darts with Johnny Mold in the Swan Inn Great Bourton. Johnny Mold was quite a character and once drove to Ascot races in a horse and trap. Also on the film the pub regulars are shown doing the Conga into the street on New Year's Eve 1957, and wasn't the pub smokey. The village in 1957 was less than half it's present size but both pubs were then very busy.

PART 2 The Railway

The twin tracks were completed from London to Birmingham in 1852 in Brunel's broad gauge, but this was later changed to standard gauge to be compatible with other tracks. A third track was installed in 1917 to serve Wroxton Ironstone but Wroxton closed in 1967 and this track was then removed. The crossing keeper was eventually replaced by a phone and we had gate keys but had to phone the signal box to get clearance before we could cross. One had to be familiar with railway jargon as all tracks go UP to the capital & DOWN away from it. The signal man might say "You can cross after the next train on the up line" (which was going downhill !) "And make sure you phone back when you are over". It could be hair raising waiting with cattle in summer when they were twitchy with flies. I once had a near miss after the signal man wrongly gave me clearance and had to slam the Landrover quickly into reverse. We had two more crossings without a phone but only used them for tractors. The crossing house built of limestone was eventually demolished and the stone carted away for re use.

The adjoining fields between the railway and canal on the north side are Stonehill - Middle Ley & The Paddock. On the south side they are Little Swans - Barley Furlong & Lock Ground. Stonehill once had a double hedge and ditch but we piped the ditch and removed the hedge as it was an awkward little field split up by the railway. I once spent a pleasant hour in the mowing grass in Barley Furlong but I think your imagination will illustrate the situation better than I can. I can recall parking a load of grain near the badger sett in Middle Ley and suddenly one wheel collapsed into an underground tunnel. We had much of the land under arable rotation and it was common in March to see up to twelve hares cavorting in Middle Ley but now there are none.

Pewet Farm

The house has evolved in three stages. First a small cottage, then an extension added and now with a further extension to incorporate the adjoining barn. The vehicular access was via Mill Lane but we laid a new road in concrete to Cropredy which was a great improvement. All the work was done by hand with a cement mixer as there were no premix lorries then. The Pearson family have since covered the concrete with a smart tarmac surface. The water supply to Pewet comes from Butterwell Spring on Bourton Hill and I replaced most of the old metal pipe work with polythene in 1970. My wife once lost her wedding ring when helping me feed cattle at Pewet. She said " I am not going to push a pushchair around Banbury without a wedding ring" so we had to buy another one. Today it is not unusual to see young girls with children without a ring.

On a stormy night during the August Bank Holiday of 1950 Billy Butlin's pilot made a forced landing in Canal Ground. The entourage, cold and wet, knocked on the door at Pewet Farm and Betty and Van Cameron who lived there at the time gave them hot drinks and Van took off in the dark across the fields to Cropredy to seek help as they had no phone then. Betty and Van were promised a free holiday but it never materialised! Once Cecil Watts and myself were installing a bathroom and septic tank to replace the outside privy. Cecil had just re plastered a large hole in the sitting room ceiling and stood back admiring his work. I went upstairs and stood on a twangy section of floor and the whole lot came crashing down again. We then realised why there was a large hole in the ceiling in the first place.

In the early 1980's Pewet cottage had been vacated by the tenants but I still had cattle in the yards. One day I was looking down from Bourton and saw two cars travelling along the road to the farm but they did not return so I decided to investigate. When I got there I saw a car I recognised tucked away in the barn but no second car. All of a sudden the garage door opened and a chap said " It's all right Brian it's only me". Inside the garage there was a scantily dressed girl in the second car. Not being a spoil sport I closed the door again and left them to it. Mind you I doubt if his wife would have been best pleased had she found out!

PART 3 The Canal

If you walk past Pewet Farm buildings towards the canal, note the unusual brickwork in the wall behind the cattle race. There are three layers of bricks laid on edge, alternating with a stretcher course and I can only think that this was to economise on bricks. Ray Cherry tells me that this is called the Dean bond. It is an ancient wall and I have a film of Jean Wadland TT testing cattle there and the roof of the hovel was then thatched. The last building on the left had the outer stone wall collapse onto the lane and Jim Baker and myself rebuilt it with concrete blocks. At about the same time the high garden retaining wall at Wedmore, Great Bourton (formerly the post office and shop) collapsed into the road. John Lilley, who worked for Midland Marts and lived at Wedmore, used their little grey Ferguson tactor and carted the surplus stone from the collapsed wall at Prewet to rebuild his wall.

The engineer of the Oxford Canal was James Brindley and the canal was constructed from north to south and got to Banbury in the late 1770s, but the project then ran out of funds. A meeting was held, and more investors put money in and it was completed to connect with the Thames at Oxford in 1790. I have walked it's length (82 miles) and it starts at Hawkesbury Junction with the Coventry Canal between Coventry and Bedworth. It is hump-backed, in that it rises for so far and then there is the eleven mile summit which ends at Claydon, from where it descends to Oxford. The deepest lock is at Somerton. There used to be a shallow tunnel near Fenny Compton but this was later opened up. For a short distance the canal joins, and then leaves, the Grand Union Canal and there was an agreement that the Oxford Canal Company had to maintain that section of the Grand Union. The nearest coal fields to us were at Coventry, but a horse could only pull one ton uphill by road so only the rich could afford coal. One small horse could easily pull 20 tons of coal on the canal and so cheap coal was then made available for everyone.

There was a toll bar at Cropredy and fly boats which had priority at locks paid a higher fee. As with all water traffic whether it be on the sea, river or canal, ships or boats must always keep to the right when meeting other vessels (opposite to driving on the roads.)

River Cherwell

For the most part the Cherwell forms the eastern boundary of Bourtons parish. It starts near Charwelton and I have an old map where it is spelt Charwel, so I think that is where it derived it's name, but over time has been corrupted into Cherwell. Our land ceased at the canal at Pewet but carried on both sides of the river further north and up to Williamscote. There was a bridge over the canal but not the river, so we built a bridge over the river and could then drive and move livestock from Williamscote to Bourton without using the roads.

We found a convenient spot where the river was at it's narrowest and then shuttered concrete piers to a height which was safely above flood level. After consulting a structural engineer as to what steel girders would be needed to carry 10 tonnes over the given span, we positioned these girders and then placed a simple railway sleeper floor on top of them and added side rails and gates. Many tonnes of reclaimed hardcore were used to make the ramps up to the bridge. This work was completed by three of us in two weeks in the early 1970s.

PART 4 Slat Mill

Slat Mill lies just inside Bourtons Parish and the original approach to the Mill from Pewet Farm would have been a gentle gradient, but when the Canal came, the road had to be raised to get over the canal bridge, making access to and from the mill more difficult. There is also a bridlepath that goes from the bottom of Williamscote Hill to School Lane at Cropredy which passes by the mill. Slat Mill was always recorded as a corn mill and was first mentioned in 1482, but I have good reason to believe that it sometimes had another use. It is recorded that at times the mill was leased to drapers, but it does not say why. The word slat can mean to strike or beat. The Lord family once farming at Williamscote were also listed as Fullers but it is not stated where. Fulling is the process of scouring, beating and thickening of cloth in water. If all of these clues are put together surely there is overwhelming evidence that Slat Mill was also used for fulling. Fulling mills were common at one time and especially on the Cotswold streams. Before synthetic fibres were introduced wool was extremely valuable and thousands of sheep then grazed the Cotswold hills, as much for their wool as their meat. The beautiful Cotswold towns and villages were largely built through the wealth created by wool, whereas today a fleece often does not cover the cost of shearing.

In 1575 the then squire of Williamscote, Walter Calcott, built and financed a free Grammar School for boys in what is now the School House, Williamscote, and seven places were alloted to boys from the Bourtons. In the early 1600s the miller was Robert Mansell and he had two sons Edward and Nemiah who were educated at this school and both entered the Clergy. During the English Civil War, Charles I based his headquarters at Oxford and while there, Edward became the King's chaplain. One night Edward was walking on the outskirts of Oxford and was captured by Roundheads. It is known that he was taken to Abingdon but was never heard of again.

The Williamscote Estate at one time also owned a windmill and very often both Slat Mill and the windmill were leased together. The windmill was in the Windmill field at the top of Williamscote Hill on the Chacombe lane. There was also a windmill up Great Hill near Wardington and another near Chacombe. Sometimes there were tragic accidents and Uriah Falkner was killed in the workings of Slat Mill in 1739. The last miller was Matthew Townsend, whose wife was from the Cherry family. They had up to fifteen children so did not spend all of their time milling! Matthew died at Slat Mill aged 45 around 1897. He was Graham Townsend's Great Grandfather. There was a memorial plaque to Matthew in the former Methodist Chapel (now Bourtons Village Hall). I can recall water thundering through the sluice at the Mill after heavy rain and if you stood close you could feel the ground tremble. In dry summers water would have to be conserved to have a day's milling. The same stored energy was used many more times as the water flowed through other mills downstream. Before the advent of steam, the only source of power was wind and water and no carbon footprints either. The mill stream branched off the river about 400 metres north. In the early 1970s Thames Conservancy netted the fish, drained the water, dredged the silt back on to the bank for a few months to dry, then filled the mill stream in. Old farmers long gone told me that they took their sheep to Slat Mill to wash them prior to shearing.

I hope you enjoyed this journey down Mill Lane and writing it certainly brought back memories for me. They say there is no such thing as luck but you must take advantage of life's opportunities hence the saying "The Mill soon stops turning once the water has passed." When one considers all of the millers that must have lived at Slat Mill over the centuries it makes me realise how insignificant we all are. We are, all of us, just tiny blips in the passage of time. While we must all work hard to achieve our goals in life we must also find time to relax and enjoy ourselves for life is not a rehearsal!

Thanks to Brian Cannon for these articles, (which first appeared in the Bourtons Broadsheet in January-April 2008) and for the photo of Slat Mill in the late 19th Century.