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LOWV walks - Carey
Mill and Islands |
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Brockhampton,
Thursday, 15th June
The River Wye
Preservation Trust
A walk visiting the site of Carey
mill at Carey Islands and the old Ballingham railway
bridge.
by kind permission of Mr and Mrs
Jeremy Clay and Mr and Mrs John Williams
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speakers: -
Heather
Hurley
P J Pikes
David Lovelace
Tim Jessop
and John
Williams of Aramstone
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Capler
Hill from the foot of the path down to the river |
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Heather
Hurley speaking on the history of the area |
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Quarry: an estate quarry, but
further upstream are the overgrown quarries of the Dean
and Chapter of Hereford Cathedral. Accounts of 1789 record
payments ‘for raising stone, carriage of timber and stone,
and haulage of stone’ from Capler Quarry to Hereford
Cathedral for the reconstruction of the west tower which
had collapsed in 1786. Further entries include stone from
Capler used for the Vicars Choir in 1803, the tower in
1843 and the Choir in 1847. |
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Cattle on
the opposite side of the river in Ballingham |
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the group
walking towards Carey Islands |
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Tim Jessop
talking about the history and state of Salmon fishing on
the Wye |
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The Carey Islands provided a natural
site for a corn mill that was in existence since at least
the 13th century when it was mentioned in the
charters of St. Guthlac’s Priory. |
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looking
back, upstream towards Capler Hill. In
a lease of 1528 it was described as ‘Two water mills
constructed under one building called Cary mills with the
weir and fishing’ and a lease of 1588 allowed the
tenant to ‘cutte downe sufficient tymber trees……..in
the sayde wood called Carie Wood for and towards the newe
buildings , repairing, mayntayning and mending of the
saide myll scite’. A later lease to William
Scudamore in 1608 was a ‘part in a water corn mill
called Carie Mill’ for one penny if demanded. |
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Carey Forge
In 1627 Sir John Kyrle of Much Marcle,
Sir John Scudamore of Holme Lacy and William Scudamore of
Ballingham entered into a partnership to build and run an
iron forge at Carey Mills. A year later Articles of
Agreement were made between the two Scudamores to erect
‘ an Iron myll or forge with all howses and other
necessarie buildings for the use of the same shall be with
as much convenient speede as may be made…………at or neere a
mill called Cary Mill upon the River of Wye’. The
forge was completed in 1629 for the cost of £632 2s 9d and
‘The Charge of making a ton of Bar Iron at Carey Forge’ in
1630 was 15s 8d. This was transported to Bristol for the
smiths to produce, nails, horseshoes, tools, weapons and
agricultural implements.
It is not known how long the iron
forge was in production, but in the ‘Survey of the River
Wye and Lugg’ of 1697 the site was called ‘Cary Weir and
Mills’ and on Taylor’s map of 1763 it is called ‘Cary Old
Mill’. John Woodhouse inherited the Aramstone estate and
purchased the remains of Carey Mill which was occupied by
Joseph Terry in 1812 , by Thomas Preece and William
Cleeton in 1847 when known as the ‘cottage down through
the wood’, and since becoming vacant, around 1870,
only the foundations of the house remained to be
identified in 1984. |
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Scatter of
stones on one of the islands. |
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This
pronounced linear hollow downstream of the mill site is
almost certainly associated with the mill in some way. |
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John
Williams of Aramstone talks on the history of the estate |
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Careyboat: was one of several former
river crossings from Ballingham known earlier as James
Ford and became Careybridge after the construction of the
Hereford, Ross, Gloucester Railway in 1855. Ford Road in
Ballingham led to Yearly’s Boat in 1780 which crossed the
Wye just below Carey Islands. This cottage, known to have
been the ferryman’s, house was owned by the ‘ River Wye
Towing Path Company’ in 1847 and occupied by Samuel Terry.
It is known to have been a ‘doss house’ for the bargees.
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Ballingham
Bridge |
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