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Hotspot 3. The Site of Iffley Watermill.

See Perrott, J., Iffley Water Mill, a History. ILHS Publication No 3.
No mill is mentioned in Domesday but there are references from the late 12th century. The mill did not belong to the Manor estate but was a property on its own. Lincoln College bought it in 1445. Its income included a valuable eel fishery. In the 19th century, when it was failing as a business and dilapidated, its picturesque appearance began making profits for local artists. The mill was burnt down in 1908 and never rebuilt.

Being close to the lock (see 1), its history was full of violent disputes over the use of water, since the priorities of milling and navigation are often in conflict. Millers also had the right to levy a toll on any pedestrian crossing the mill-race bridge to the lock. The present bridge and toll-house date from 1924; tolls have not been paid since the 1960s.

 

Lock Gate, Mill Wheel and Fish Traps
Iffley Mill wheel, weir and eel-bucks (traps), 1782

 

Iffley Mill, 1862

Iffley Mill, Henry Taunt,1862. Centre for Oxfordshire Studies.

 

Iffley Mill © The Werner Company of Chicago, 1894, Page 173

 

Iffley Mill from lock and boat slide c1900, Taunt, (see lock diagram in Hotspot 1. River)

 

Iffley Mill, 1903-1905

Iffley Mill, 1903-1905, Henry Taunt.

 

Fire at Iffley Mill, 1908

'Fire at Iffley Mill, Oxford, May 20th 1908.'

 


Mill House Garden, site of Iffley Mill © Toni Perrott

 


Stone plaque to left of the Millhouse Garden gate © Toni Perrott