River Wye, Buckinghamshire


The River Wye is a river in Buckinghamshire, England. Around in length, it rises in the Chiltern Hills and flows through High Wycombe before emptying into the River Thames at Bourne End, on the reach above Cookham Lock.
High Wycombe takes part of its name from the river, which now runs mostly underground through the town. Pann Mill watermill, at the eastern end of Wycombe, is the last remaining watermill on the River Wye.

History

There is a long history of water-mills being operated in the Wye Valley which drops about 200 feet in its 9-mile course. The Domesday Book records eighteen of them in the nine miles between West Wycombe and the Thames.
By the seventeenth century there were fulling mills as well as corn mills. A Court of Survey in 1627 lists six mills running upstream from the boundary with Wooburn Parish: the paper mill, Tredway, Loudwater, Bassetsbury, Chalfonts and Bridge. There were by this time at least two paper mills: Glory in Wooburn Green and Hedge in Loudwater. By 1636 another paper mill had been established in the parish of West Wycombe and by 1656 another at Marsh, below Wycombe. At this time paper was made from rags and by the end of the eighteenth century more than 150 men were recorded as papermakers in the valley. In 1816 there were 32 paper mills, four which only milled corn and one which was also a saw mill. This was when paper making reached its peak in the valley. However, the introduction of the Fourdrinier machine, which produced a continuous roll of paper, led to widespread unemployment and many families went to the cotton mills of Lancashire. In 1830 there were riots when machine wreckers broke the machines at Ash, Marsh Green and Loudwater. Twenty men were punished by penal transportation to Tasmania.
Papermaking continued at the Soho and Glory mills till the end of the twentieth century, though the water-mills gave way to steam in the mid-nineteenth century. The Soho mill in Wooburn was the prime supplier of high-grade colour paper till its demise in 1984.

Mills

Shown in order from highest to lowest. Note that Marsh Green to Treadway are on an extra cut parallel to Pan to Loudwater Mills. The number is that given by registration in the eighteenth century.
NameRecordedLast recordNoTypeOS Ref
West Wycombe Mill13111900~sawmill
Upper, Francis or Little Mill16811903423paper
Lower, Mill End or Fryer’s Mill15051915422Corn & paper
Lord, Frog or Ball Mill17171883421Corn & paper
Ash or Lane’s Mill 15961895419, 420paper
Temple Mill 12271895corn
Bridge Mill11851932corn
Pann Mill11851967corn
Rye Mill 13461931411paper
Bassetbury Mill14111931corn
Bowden Mill 12351939415, 416Corn & paper
Wycombe Marsh Mill 11331993414paper
King’s Mill 17251939417paper
Loudwater Mill 14831939430, 431paper
Snakely or Ford’s Mill17671970428paper
Hedge Mill12351970427Corn & paper
Marsh Green or Upper Marsh Mill17501816412Corn & paper
Beech Mill17401900413paper
Treadway Mill 16821854418Corn & paper
Clapton Mill14921922429, 509Corn, metal & paper
Glory Mill 12352000426Corn & paper
Lower Glory Mill16311907425Corn & paper
Soho Mill17051988424Corn & paper
Prince’s Mill 17301865287, 288, 289Corn & paper
Gunpowder Mill 17051980286Corn & paper
Hedsor Mill14921980285Corn & paper
Lower Bourne End Mill17191895284Corn & paper