Weatherig The Strom

Winchester City Mill has been part of the local landscape since Saxon times but until recently, devastating flood damage threatened 1000 years of milling history. Viv Micklefield looks at the steps being taken to save it

STRADDLING the River Itchen, just a stone’s throw from King Alfred’s statue, the City Mill is at Winchester’s historic heart and the gateway to the South Downs National Park. Yet the picturesque setting deceives the eye. As despite a turbulent history, four years ago what’s believed to be the country’s oldest working watermill faced its sternest test, when rising flood waters threatened its very future.

Until the advent of steam such watermills, and windmills, provided the only source of power for many different processes, from making flour, paper and cloth to hammering  metals and extracting oils. The survival of this early example of an urban corn mill makes it extremely rare. So the National Trust, which is now responsible for Winchester City Mill, wants to ensure that damage to the building’s structure, caused by the flooding and the hand of time is reversed. And in just over a year, £90,000 has so far been raised from donations and fundraising to allow vital repairs to this ancient building to begin.

“Our assumption is that the Mill’s origins date back to Roman times,” says manager Ric Weeks. “Most of what people see inside dates from the 14th and early 15th centuries. It was rebuilt in the 1740s, which meant knocking out the wattle and daub walls and replacing these with Flemish brick. James Cooke who did this chose to keep much of the medieval beam work inside, so there was conservation in action even way back in the 18th century.