Rhiwbina Living 62

history
the old deri mill
Mills around Rhiwbina were quite commonplace during the 1800s.
Nigel Lewis revisits some of the more prominent ones
By Nigel Lewis
In the last issue of Rhiwbina Living,
we looked at Beulah Corner and
what a difference 180-odd years
had made since the time of the
parish Tithe Map.
If you remember, I’d produced a
map showing how rural the area
was c.1875. It showed a meandering
and timeless stream and the
junction of a couple of rural tracks
(hardly roads as we might know
them). On the Tithe Map a few years
earlier, the ancient ford (called
Rhydwaedlyd) had been replaced
by a simple humpback bridge
leading north to the Deri and then
by 1875, a ‘new’ shallower bridge
had been constructed, with the
stream diverted.
There were a few scattered
cottages and one or two larger
houses. The first iteration of Beulah
Chapel was there, and of course
there were the ancient farmhouses,
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but they were spread over the area.
I’ve produced another map, also
dated c.1875, just north-east of
Beulah Corner, showing an old mill.
There’s a tree-lined track off Rhydy-Walla
(later renamed Beulah
Road) leading to a mill. This track is
now Heol-y-Felin.
Just like Beulah Corner, the whole
area was incredibly rural, with lots
of fields. There were a few cottages
and then a grander house called
Ty’n-y-Coed. The parish boundary
with Llanishen ran haphazardly
across the area. In fact, it looks as
though it ran right through Ty’ny-Coed;
so apart from perhaps a
living room and a bedroom, most
of the house would have been in
Llanishen parish! Its fields certainly
were. Then there was the mill, a
millpond, and a pub.
The stream, Nantwaedlyd
meandered as it always did, but
a millrace had been constructed
(quite possibly as far back as the
17th century), diverting some of the
stream water into the millpond. By
1840 and the Tithe Map, the mill
would have already been very old.
At the time, it was called ‘Crofft-y-
Felin’ and was owned by Mrs Rachel
Lewis of Deri Farm.
The fields of Deri Farm seem
almost to wrap the mill, with a few
more fields to the south.
The mill, Crofft-y-Felin, was the
largest building around (probably
bigger than Ty’n-y-Coed), with the
large millpond adjacent. Passing
through the mill, water from the
millpond was discharged via a
‘tailrace’ back into Nantwaedlyd,
just about where All Saints Church
is today. There was also an overflow,
to prevent the millpond from
overtopping.
So, what did the mill look like?
We’ll never know for certain, but
there is help from John Constable’s
well-known painting ‘The Haywain’.
Painted in 1821, Flatford Mill and
Willie Lott’s cottage might well be
contemporary with the Rhiwbina
Sketches: Nigel Lewis