History of corn milling .. - Centrostudirpinia.it

144 -HISTORY OF CORN MILLING: vol. iv.
the consent of the Crown to their erecting a mill of
}^'-
LIVERPOOL. '
their own in the town. For when, in 1557, John
6. Middle Mill Crosse died, he was found by inquisition to have been
1557- possessed of one windmill in Liverpool held " de rege
Inq. p. m., et rega "
; being built, apparently, within the previous
"^'^
'
four years by consent of the Crown, and vested with
a soke right over that part of the town in which his
estate lay. This was a sub-division of town multure
little approved of by Molyneux ; who in the same
year, when renewing the general lease of the town to
Duchy Leases, the corporation, expressly
"
alwayes forpossessed and
"^"^
' ^'^*
reseryved all the [royal] milns standing and beying in
the said towne or borrowe or the libertys of ye same."
Crosse's new mill was built near the family seat,
Crosse Hall ^ (by the present Crosshall Street, Dale
Street), on the slope of the Liverpool Dale (on the
site of the present North Street), f a quarter of a mile
distant from Eastham Mill on the opposite site of
the creek. F>om its central position in the town it
was called Middle Mill J ; while the dale below it was
called Middle Mill Dale in contradistinction to Eastham
Mill Dale on the opposite bank, with which in
modern times it has, however, been much confused,
even by the local antiquary Okill.§
Middle Mill proved a sore thorn in the side of
*
Moore Deeds, 347. I5I9' Land in le Dale strete opposite capitalis messuag Rogi Crosse.
Crosse Deeds, 223. 1742. Crosse Hall bequeathed by Richard Crosse to Ann his wife.
Ibid., 173. t 1513. A close in Liverpool called Le Middil Hey.
Ibid., 214. 1697. Afield near Crosse Hall belonging to John Crosse, called Middle Field.
Port Mote, ii. 686. J 1610. Lease of two parcels of land in the town's field of Liverpool, whereof
one is called Middle Mill Dale and the other is called Mill Dani
[Eastham].
Ibid., iii. 699. 1659. We order that Mrs. Crosse and Thomas Birch shall make a gate
for a cart-pass between Middle Mill and the town's common as
formerly.
Ibid., iv. 29. 1672. The town s common lying in the bottom of the Middle Mill croft—
east of the Middle Mill Dale. Also land in Middle
namely, lying
Mill Dale abutting to the Town's Gate, and so at the bottom of
Mr. Crosse's field. »
Ibid., X. 601. 1753- Lease of the Middle Milne Dale and the little meadow at the
bottom of Dale Street.
Okill, W. Dby. § " On the site of the north side of Circus Street the stream supplied a
MSS., iii. 205. mill-dam called Eastham or Middle Mill."