History of corn milling .. - Centrostudirpinia.it

SOME FEUDAL MILLS. 65
CHAPTER III.
DEE MILIvS, CHESTER.
I. Though corn mills have stood on the bridge hi.
of Dee, Chester, at least eight centuries, their origin ^chester^' —
is not to be traced back to still earlier times, as may-^ y^= l. 1* orewords,
ot the
certainly be done in the case of very many
smaller milling establishments of the kingdom. The
bridge itself dates back very clearly to Saxon days.
True, Ormerod states "the earliest mention of a Hist. Cheshire,
bridge at Chester occurs in the MS. chronicle of^ 2,1.32.
St. Werburgh, which mentions its total downfall in
1227." ^^^ ^^ ^^y ^^^^ ^^ Domesday that a hide and Domesday,
a half of city land lay ''beyond the bridge"; and that, '' ^^^'' ^^^^
according to Saxon custom, the citizens were bound
to find labour for the repair of ''the city wall and the
bridge." But no allusion is made to any mills being on
the bridge in Saxon times, nor till the year 1093.
These mills, of undoubted antiquity and consider-
able magnitude, and at one time, so far as the records
go, the most valuable king's mills in the realm, are
intrinsically worthy of a record of some approach to
reliability ; and it is satisfactory, therefore, that the
effort to put some such record together has revealed
an amplitude of material in the ancient records of
the city of Chester, and in the mass of documents
relating thereto comprised
the British Museum.*
in the Harleian MSS. at
* The extensive and interesting archives of Chester have been fully consulted
on behalf of this sketch, by courtesy of the Corporation, aided by the good offices
of Mr. S. Smith, Town Clerk. The appreciative care with which the valuable and
unique records of the ancient city are preserved in a specially built strong-room at
the Town Hall demands very cordial recognition.