Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

was usually sold at the local market (at least before 1750), but even in Stuart times grain
was sometimes sold privately. 185
For the most part this zone’s water-mills were used solely for corn-grinding and
not adapted for other industrial purposes. 186
Windmills, less common than water-mills,
are mentioned from the 1720s, when William Alcocks bequeathed both a water-mill and
windmill to his son. 187
A new windmill, erected for grinding corn at Holberrow Green in
the 1780s, was a venture by the Milward family, who were also maltsters and bakers. 188
The term ‘miller’ usually refers to the master of the mill, but in nineteenth century
baptisms and censuses ‘journeymen millers’ receive a mention along with the odd
‘miller’s labourer’. The master millers generally lived better than most petty tradesmen,
but there were exceptions. 189
From the second half of the eighteenth century the term
‘mealman’ is sometimes used as an alternative descriptor for miller, while Inkberrow had
an oatmealmaker in the seventeenth century, who presumably ground oats for human or
animal consumption. 190
The probate of William Alcocks mentioned above gives two
contemporary variants for ‘miller’, namely ‘millard’ and ‘millner’.
185 WoRO, probate of John Smith, Wilmcote, (Aston Cantlow), yeoman, 1681, £137-7-4, includes a curious
note on the reverse of his inventory, which gives an insight into the sale of corn. Someone (perhaps a
servant or carrier) was ‘to bring the corn to Aston Cantlow one Wensday next to the Swan by five of the
clock at furthest….’ The corn was to be directed to Messrs Langlee and Wolbarston. The note probably
refers to corn left when John Smith died. Nevertheless it is interesting to see that the corn was not sold
through the market. Whether the whole load of corn or just a sample was to be brought to the inn is not
made clear.
186 See Appendix 17. Spernall’s fulling-mill and Aston Cantlow’s paper-mills are discussed above in the
textile section, while mills in Haselor and Arrow were used for needle production after 1800.
187 WoRO, probate of William Alcocks, Rous Lench, miller, 1725, £11-16-4. The WoRO probate of
another William Alcox, Oversley, (Arrow), miller, 1725, £205-14-8, shows that he held land some miles
away in Herefordshire, emphasising the more extensive geographical links enjoyed by many milling
families.
188 VCH Worcestershire, iii, p. 426. Hunt and Jackson, Inkberrow Folk and Farms, pp. 55-6.
189 Berrow’s Worcester Journal 7 Feb. 1799 reports that William Rawlins, Inkberrow, miller, died in his
own mill, ‘frozen to death’.
190 SCLA, DR12/63/44, deed regarding property, 1659, mentions William Parsons, Inkberrow,
oatmealmaker.
230