The harbour town of Emsworth in the SE corner of Hampshire and its
hinterland had once an extensive watermill system based on the River Ems.
Producing flour for the victualling yards of the Royal Navy in nearby
Portsmouth.
Old Emsworth stands between two river valleys, the Ems in the East and
another that strangely is not named in the West. Due to eustatic and isostatic
the lower reaches are 'drowned', at least at high-tide. So both river mouths
were made into tidal mills of which the mill houses still stand as well as the
ponds. A site at Nutbourne, West Sussex to the east once had a similar tidemill
but only traces exist now.
The subject of the Emsworth mills was written up by a local historian named
'David Rudkin' who founded the Emsworth Museum and sadly has recently
passed on. He wrote a number of short booklets including 'The River Ems and
associated watercourses'. I am not sure of the publishers but if Hampshire
County Libraries are contacted via the web this should be easily solved.
NB This is not the David Rudkin of Fishbourne Palace fame.
John Wood of Sussex
>>> Roger Burt <[log in to unmask]> 28/October/1998 09:39pm >>>
On Tue, 27 Oct 1998 23:55:23 +0000 Michael Messenger
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I have received the following. Can anyone offer Bud Warren information
> on tide mills?
>
> Michael Messenger
>
>
> ------- Forwarded message follows -------
>
> Hello!
>
> Recently I was searching the internet for information about tide mills in the
UK
> and was led to your website. But I was unable to find a publication of yours
> which covered this topic. If you do have such an offering, would
appreciate
> title and/or description.
>
> My e-mail is [log in to unmask]
>
> Thenk you!
>
> Bud Warren - Phippsburg, Maine
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
> Michael Messenger
> Twelveheads Press
> Chy Mengleth, Twelveheads, Truro, Cornwall TR4 8SN, UK
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.twelveheads.demon.co.uk/
> ------------------------------------------------------
Look up W.E.Minchinton - he published a number of things
back in the 1970s on tidemills. Cann't remember the title
but they are probably still around. He is now dead - so I
cann't ask him about sources.
Roger
----------------------
Prof.Roger Burt
Department of History
School of History, Politics and Sociology
Amory Building
University of Exeter
Devon, EX4 4RJ
Tel. 01392 263291
Fax. 01392 263305
Web Page. http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RBurt
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