Map/Aerial photo of the area around the mill
Hollow-post
- bare trestle remains, deteriorating rapidly
A plaque on the wall of the remains reads:
The Mill House. Mill House is one of the few houses ever to
be built on the common. There has been a house on the site since 1806
when Miller John Blake Barker was granted permission to erect a windmill
on half an acre of newly enclosed land. Built during the Napoleonic
Wars, when flour was expensive, the tenancy was granted on condition
that Miller John Blake Barker "grind the grist of the inhabitants of
Mitcham on two days every week for ever at a 'fair and reasonable
price'".
The windmill was in constant use until 1862 when, during a storm, it was
struck by lightning and two of the sails were destroyed thus ending the
working life of the mill. It was finally dismantled down to its base in
1905.
The existing house was built in 1860 and was originally known as "Mill
Cottoge" and "Windmill Cottage" until 1890 when due to considerable
extension it was renamed "Mill House". It was occupied by the Watson
family from 1861 to 1936. The house was subsequently sold and used as a
home for girls as well as a Creamery and for packing biscuits.
In 1950 it was acquired by Mitcham Corporation to be used as a Youth
Centre but instead the house was divided into 3 flats and the
outbuildings used by the Parks Department.
In 1994 the site was purchased by Whitbread Plc., and the existing
'original house' developed and extended to form a Brewers Fayre Public
House. A new Ecology Centre was also built by Whitbread Plc., to house
the Micham Common Conservators and provide changing facilities for local
sports clubs.
Mitcham Common, 8th April 2001
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