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136 HISTORY OF CORN MILLING: vol. iv.
IV.
KING'S MILLS,
LIVERPOOL.
2. Eastham
Watermills.
Reliquiae.
3. Eastham
Windmill.
Leases,
1257-1413.
Text, n. 235.
Inq. Forest,
16-17 Edw.
III. 8.
Close Rolls,
Duke Hy.,
No. 3.
of Liverpool show the pool alone— overlooked by the
south side of Circus Street, the van of an approaching
overwhelmed both it
phalanx of streets that shortly
and the entire countryside.
At the present day the site can still easily be
identified near the rear of the Art Gallery, where may
yet be seen, in an open space recently cleared of
a number of old houses by the corporation, in Down
Street (the ancient Eastham Mill Lane), the sloping
declivity which once held the pool backed up by
the dam. Though in the midst of surroundings little
suggestive of ancient rural beauty or industrial prosperity,
and though not otherwise fascinating, the
site of medieval Eastham— the very name and exist-
ence of which have for so long been forgotten — may
still claim an interest of its own as the Plantagenet
birthplace and medieval centre of corn milling in
Liverpool.
3. A windmill succeeded the watermills at Eastham,
and till the eighteenth century the neighbourhood remained
the site for most of the windmills of the town.
The allusion to the watermills in 1257 comprises also
mention of an existing windmill ;
this being only sixtysix
years after the date of the first known windmill of
Europe. It is seen to be still existing in 1297; ^^^
again in 1326, when it is valued at 26s. as against
watermill. It was
24s. per annum for the remaining
"
the mill of Liverpool for the repair of
doubtless *'
which, in 1342, the verderers of the Duchy Forest of
West Derby reported that two oaks had been cut
down in the time of Gilbert of Haydock, seneschal.
Though no indication yet appears as to site, its identity
may definitely be decided as that of the windmill at
Eastham.
In 1357 several representative burgesses received
from the Duke a lease of ''
our town of Liverpool