At our February meeting  Corry Starling gave us an outstanding talk on Mapledurham Water Mill, the last commercially operated mill on the River Thames. A mill has existed on the site for over a thousand years and is referred to in the Doomesday Book: Mill and ten acre farm, twenty shillings.

The mill is part of the two and a half thousand acre Mapledurham estate which has been in the same family since 1492. Corry described the early history of the mill until the 1960’s when it became almost derelict. In it’s heyday five men and four boys were employed and two channels fed two wooden water wheels. It was one of the few mills to include a dressing machine so that white flour could be produced and this attracted premium prices from London merchants living in the neighbourhood.

The estate realised that other sources of income were required to support the mill and other buildings on the estate and a series of filming events fulfilled this requirement, starting with “The Eagle has Landed” in the 1970’s. Since them Midsomer Murders and Miss Marple have visited and the mill even featured on a Black Sabbath album cover. All of these now have large numbers of international fans keen to visit the site.

Corry and his wife moved into the village in 1999 for an eighteen month stay and have been there ever since. In 2012 they accepted the offer from the estate to rent the mill and shop. Since then they have completely overhauled the premises including a thorough clean from top to bottom and redressing the millstones. The wooden water wheel has been rebuilt and a derelict water turbine removed from the other wheel pit. In it’s place has been installed a state of the art Archimedes Screw water turbine which produces about 500,000KWhr per year. The deal with the National Grid means the scheme will pay for itself about half way through the twenty year contract.

Mr Starling gave a lively and informative description of the mill, it’s workings and his role as miller. It was clear to his audience that in addition to his great passion, Corry has considerable expertise and understanding of every aspect of the water mill. We were particularly enthralled by his description of a safety device consisting of a leather strap, a cord and a bell, designed to warn the miller on the floor below when the hopper was running low on grain. If the millstones operate without this feed there is a risk of fire. He emphasised the key influence weather and river levels can have on operations, including compete stoppage during flooding.

Mrs Starling is an expert baker and offers a range of speciality baking mixtures in addition to the various flours produced by the mill. This has transformed the shop so that all the flour produced is sold on the premises.

The History Society is planning a visit to the mill on Saturday June 18^th and details will be posted on our website www.history-society.org.

Attending members and visitors listened to an enthralling talk presented by Bill King about the Upper Thames Patrol (UTP) on Thursday 14^th January.

England was under serious threat of invasion in 1940 and everything and everyone that could be mustered were gathered to form, initially the Local Defence Volunteers; later to become the Home Guard. Part of this group were the volunteers called the Upper Thames Patrol. Their duties were to guard the navigable river Thames from Lechlade to Teddington Locks to include the riverbanks a mile and a half into the countryside and most of all to protect the bridges, locks and weirs from sabotage. In order to do this private launches and smaller vessels (with shallower draughts) were commandeered or offered by their owners for the duration. These craft were all numbered according to the area they were to patrol and were kitted out with fighting equipment. They of course had to defend themselves from the odd enemy fighter plane attack. Equally so the volunteers were trained and by the end of the war they were as qualified as any regular soldier. Some more so as they had to know how to handle their boats and operate the locks and weirs. Most of the men were in full employment on reserved occupational duties and were drawn form the farming industry and from factories such as MG and Morris. They had to do a minimum of 7 hours duty a week for which they received one shilling and sixpence (7.5pence) barely enough to buy two pints of beer in 1940.

Crossing the Thames by bridge is essential when going North to South or vice versa. In terms of defence the protection and indeed destruction of the bridges was equally as important as when the tables turned and we were on the offensive. The Upper Thames patrol was in charge of blowing up the bridges, locks and opening the weirs as a means of defence in case of invasion. The idea being to flood the surrounding planes and therefore bog down any advancing mechanised invasion. Early in 1940 all bridges were heavily protected by cunning roadblock devices and had gun emplacements strategically positioned to counter any attack. Some of these structures are still visible today such as pillboxes and large concrete barriers.

Most Pubs near to the river were commandeered as Headquarters for the group and consequently they became known as the “Up The Pub” lot.

Clare Sargent, the archivist for Radley College, described its 160 year history in her talk to the Society in November. In March, 1847 Robert Corbet Singleton gathered together Rev. William Small, a moral philosopher, Edwin Monk, a musician, and Edmund Wade to “take tea”. Schools were deemed to be out of control and the group’s ideal was to create a school founded on Christian values to civilise boys by surrounding them with beauty and culture. Staff and boys were to be thought equals in learning regardless of age differences.

 Robert Corbet Singleton

The group established their criteria for a suitable location realising the need for a school to be settled to succeed. Radley Hall, situated in its 1000 year old country estate, with Capability Brown landscaped parkland and pond, just 4 miles from Oxford and 2 miles from Abingdon, near London, railway and river, fulfilled the criteria. The building was leased for 21 years despite its unsuitability to accommodate a school, and the lack of money for the project. Other facilities were provided in the former Jacobean residence on site, still linked to this day by a tunnel to the Hall. An old barn was relocated to provide a schoolroom, a chapel was built , and in 1859 a dormitory constructed with individual cubicles to allow the boys privacy. The boys were to wear academic dress, to be gentlemanly, not luxurious, and self-controlled. Philip Wood was appointed Warden (Head-Master). Fasting was the rule on Sundays and as no jam was provided boys clubbed together to buy  their own. A bell tower was built with the first money raised. After three months there were 4 staff and 3 boys. In time Prefects were established in the Socials (Houses) and in 1863 a choir was formed. Sport was important and continues to be so.

The old schoolroom is now the Library and the old desk lids carved with former boys’ names demonstrate their boredom: the desk space was each one’s valued private space. The College had grown by the 1920’s and has continued to do so. In subsequent years numerous additional buildings have been erected on the site and 690 boys aged from 13 to 18 are currently accommodated.

Former College boys were awarded distinguished medals in each World War: Oswald Austin Read, a wicket keeper while at Radley, was  awarded the Victoria Cross in 1917 for his part in the Battle of Baghdad, and Charles Howard, who was honoured for his bomb disposal work in 1944. In 1940 Eastbourne School chose to relocate to Radley, posing a problem as to which was the home team when they played a rugby match.