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Rooksbury Mill

Andover, HampshireGrade II listed buildings in HampshireUse British English from May 2020Watermills in Hampshire
Andover Rooksbury Mill 02
Andover Rooksbury Mill 02

Rooksbury Mill is an old watermill on the River Anton in Andover, Hampshire, England, and a Grade II listed building. The building and its associated structures are privately owned, but the surrounding land is owned by the Test Valley Borough Council and managed as a local nature reserve.Although the present mill building dates from the late 16th or early 17th century, Rooksbury Mill may be one of the eleven mills that, according to the Domesday Book, existed in Andover in 1089.On the afternoon of Friday 29 May 1812, a barn at Rooksbury Mill was struck by lightning and set ablaze. The fire completely destroyed the barn and its contents, a nearby stable, and two carts. It was reported that the ″instantaneous and complete destruction″ of one of the carts excited particular astonishment. Two men sheltering next to the barn escaped permanent harm, though one of them was temporarily blinded. At that time the Mill was in the possession of the Holloway family.On the evening of Thursday 9 November 1843 another, though apparently accidental, fire destroyed a thatched barn that stood on exactly the same site as the 1812 barn fire. Although there were numerous people present, nothing could be done to extinguish the blaze, which also threatened the adjacent house and the Mill building, all being in the ownership of John Rawlinson, Esq. The barn eventually collapsed, destroying a large quantity of wheat and a threshing machine that had been in use at the time. The estimated cost of the damage was about £1,000. One cause of concern was that the Andover fire engine did not arrive until nearly one hour after the fire had begun.Flour milling ceased at the site in the early 20th century, after which the mill building went through a series of uses, including being used as a small theatre. The Test Valley Borough Council sold the building in 2002, shortly after it had been devastated by fire following an arson attack. The new owners, Anthony and Sarah de Sigley, restored the building in 2003, rebuilding much of the original structure.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Rooksbury Mill (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Rooksbury Mill
A303, Test Valley

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Latitude Longitude
N 51.1992 ° E -1.4935 °
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Rooksbury Mill Local Nature Reserve

A303
SP10 2BF Test Valley
England, United Kingdom
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Andover Rooksbury Mill 02
Andover Rooksbury Mill 02
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Upper Clatford

Upper Clatford is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England. The village is in the valley of the River Anton, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) upstream from the point where it joins the River Test at the south. Clatford is 1 mile (1.6 km) to the south from Andover town centre, the most direct route the old railway line which is now a public footpath. Along this path is evidence of the old railway line although little is seen of the earlier canal that preceded the railway. The canal and later railway were important to the local economy, in particular for the transport of raw materials from Southampton via Andover to Upper Clatford for Taskers of Andover, whose premises were in nearby Anna Valley. Pig Iron was shipped from Southampton via the canal to Taskers Wharf, originally where the footpath now leaves Upper Clatford for Andover. The road south out of the village leads to the twin village of Goodworth Clatford (formerly Lower Clatford). Clatford is an old English term meaning 'the ford where the burdock grows'. The village historically contained four manors: Norman Court, Sackville Court, Clatford Manor and Clatford Mills.Stephen Hopkins, passenger on the Mayflower and one of the signatories of the Mayflower Compact, was born and baptized at Clatford. Some years prior to his sailing on the Mayflower he was on the Sea Venture, bound for Jamestown, Virginia, when it ran aground during a storm in Bermuda in 1609. In Bermuda he led an unsuccessful mutiny, was sentenced to death but managed to obtain a pardon. Thereafter he partook in the construction of two boats from remnants of the Sea Venture and sailed to Jamestown where he spent several years before returning to England, sometime between 1614 and 1616. In 1620 he joined the Mayflower on its voyage to the new world, together with his two children, Constance and Giles. His knowledge of the ways of the indigenous population and wilderness survival (acquired in Jamestown) proved very useful to the Plymouth Colony. Stephen Hopkins died in Plymouth Colony in 1644. Significant buildings at Clatford include thatched cottages and houses including the local public house The Crook and Shears, and the local parish church of All Saints, which was first built probably during the reign of Henry I (1100-1135). It was rebuilt in the sixteenth century and transformed into an 'auditory church' in the seventeenth. The Church sits between two arms of the Pillhill Brook; the village war memorial is within its grounds.

Anna Valley
Anna Valley

Anna Valley is part of the village and parish of Upper Clatford, Hampshire, United Kingdom. The settlement is effectively an outer suburb of Andover, and is located approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south-west of the town centre. The name 'Anna' derives from the Celtic river 'Anne' meaning 'Ash tree stream' now known as Pillhill Brook on the Ordnance Survey Landranger map, though it is still known as the River Ann to older local people. Tasker Waterloo Ironworks (Taskers of Andover) opened here in 1815 and survived as a manufacturing industry until final closure in 1984. The site is now a modern housing development though there are still signs of Tasker's influence in the village in the form of workmen's houses, a line of terraced houses built for the workers and the former Tasker's hall which is now private housing. Originally much of the land occupied by the later foundry at the far end of the village was marsh land, known as Clatford Marsh. Robert Tasker noted the fact that the village had quarrying rights to chalk in the nearby hillside. By exploiting this right and quarrying an acre of chalk from the hillside it enabled the marshland to be filled with the quarried materials to act as foundations for the new Iron Foundry situated alongside the PillHill brook which would serve as a source of water power for the foundry. This chalk quarry is still very much in evidence (it is owned by the Parish Council) and can be seen from the road and a footpath that passes along the hillside behind the village leading to the Iron Age hillfort of Bury Hill. On 20 November 1830 a mob of rioters came from Andover town, they smashed a bridge in Upper Clatford that carried the road over the river Anton and proceeded to vandalise and damage fixtures and equipment at the foundry. A number of arrests were made by a detachment of local Yeomanry and the Duke of Wellington Sir Arthur Wellesley sat on the board of assizes held at Winchester jail when the ringleaders were sentenced to be hanged and a number to be transported to Australia for their crimes. In 1843 Tasker Ironworks installed a new cast iron bridge in Upper Clatford that exists today, carrying the road over the river Anton towards Church Lane. A later iron foot bridge was installed in Andover in 1851 to carry Ladies Walk over the new Micheldever Road that was cut through the chalk hillside. The village once had 2 public houses, one situated at the bottom of Sam Whites hill, on the road to Upper Clatford, the hill so being named for a former landlord of the pub. A second public house stood almost opposite Tasker Ironworks. On Wednesday July 13, 1910 the British Army airship Beta was flying over Andover when the crankshaft broke. The airship landed at Little Park Farm and was later towed by Royal Engineers to the chalk pit opposite the Taskers of Andover Waterloo Ironworks. A new engine was brought from Farnborough, Hampshire and repairs assisted by the Ironworks factory. Beta remained in the chalk pit all night and most of the following day. Crowds gathered to witness this novel sight. The village and post office shop was demolished in December 2013, having closed a few years earlier.