Gunn's Mill ( former Blast Furnace & Paper Mill) Abenhall (General)

by slowhands , proud of his ancient Dean Forest roots, Saturday, June 20, 2009, 10:29 (5709 days ago) @ oldtimes

Gunn's Mills, on a short tributary of Westbury brook, stood west of the Littledean-Mitcheldean road below Shapridge. At its greatest extent, in the mid 19th century, it formed a complex of buildings and ponds spread over four adjacent sites. (fn. 68) The principal buildings and the earliest ranges were at the lowest site, (fn. 69) which was that part of the Crown demesne on which John Cone of Mitcheldean built a water mill in or shortly before 1435. (fn. 70) In 1540 John Counteys and his wife Margaret, the daughter and heiress of another John Cone, quitclaimed a corn mill there to Richard Brayne. (fn. 71) The clothier William Gunn, the Braynes' tenant by 1596, (fn. 72) was operating two fulling mills there in 1601 (fn. 73) and enlarged the mill pond in 1610. A furnace for casting iron was built there after 1625 and was owned by Sir John Winter in 1634. (fn. 74) John Brayne seized it in 1644 (fn. 75) and Winter had regained possession by 1653. (fn. 76) The furnace was apparently not in use in 1680 (fn. 77) and was rebuilt in 1682 and 1683, (fn. 78) perhaps by Messrs. Hall and Scudamore who were later said to be partners in a new forge at Gunn's Mills. (fn. 79) The site, which after the Restoration was apparently held for a time by the constable of St. Briavels castle on behalf of the Crown, passed to William Brayne (d. 1693), who left it to his daughters Margaret Maddox, later wife of Joseph Halsey, and Rebecca. (fn. 80) They sold Gunn's Mills in 1702 to the ironmaster Thomas Foley of Stoke Edith (Herefs.) (fn. 81) and the Foleys produced iron there intermittently until at least 1736. (fn. 82) By 1741 the ironworks had been converted as a paper mill, worked by Joseph Lloyd (fn. 83) (d. 1761). (fn. 84) His business, including a corn mill a short distance upstream, (fn. 85) was continued by his wife Hannah and his son Joseph. (fn. 86) The latter, who purchased Gunn's Mills in 1780, (fn. 87) increased paper production by converting the corn mill as part of the paper manufactory and by erecting new buildings on a third site, further upstream within the Forest. Although his son Joseph took over the business in 1805 (fn. 88) he retained an interest in it until 1816. (fn. 89) After the younger Joseph's death in 1842 Gunn's Mills was occupied by tenants under the Lloyd family. (fn. 90) It was idle between 1848 and 1851 when paper making was resumed by John Birt. He provided several new buildings and installed new machinery, including steam engines, and, having bankrupted himself, (fn. 91) was succeeded as lessee in 1855 by Aaron Goold. At Goold's death in 1862 his three sons took over the business, which ceased in 1879 following the diversion of water from the stream to the new Cinderford waterworks. (fn. 92) The machinery had been removed by 1890 when a farmer bought Gunn's Mills. (fn. 93)

From: 'Abenhall', A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp. 93-101. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23253&strquery=gunn Date accessed: 20 June 2009.

Preservation/restoration link
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/upload/pdf/hbeac_minutes_may02.pdf

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