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Meadow Mills, Greenfield Valley, Holywell

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NPRN34068
Map ReferenceSJ17NE
Grid ReferenceSJ1910076970
Unitary (Local) AuthorityFlintshire
Old CountyFlintshire
CommunityHolywell
Type Of SiteROLLING MILL
PeriodPost Medieval
Description
Meadow Mill rolling mill survives as a single storey roofless brick built structure adjoining the north side of the dam wall. In 1796, Thomas Pennant described the main building as 86ft long x 69ft wide with iron flagstones and roofed with a single copper sheet, 28.5ft high at the centre and supported by two central pillars 11.5ft apart. Power was supplied by three cast iron waterwheels, 20ft diameter, supplied from John Wilkinson's iron works at Bersham. The breast shot weeks with buckets received water from a pool whose surface area was 117,028ft sq ft which had been constructed at the same time to provide a head of water 21.5ft.
In 1901, the rolling mill was described as a large building with a waterwheel measuring 25ft diameter by 9ft wide fixed by a spur wheel (measuring 12ft by 14ft with 12in teeth) attached to the main wheel. A skylight is recorded in the slate roof of the waterwheel. The Meadow Mill complex also contained a two-storey storeroom with a cupola on the roof (a crane was recorded near the stores in 1871). Attached to the store was a casting room with a slate roof and four rectangular chimney stacks. There was a square warehouse with six windows and a slate roof. Additional buildings near the rolling mill were a cart shed with an open ridge roof and a small store room with a slate roof. The buildings adjoining the High Road included a washhouse, two small stables with hayloft over and an open shed to the rear. Also listed are a warehouse and cottage, privy near the cottage, smack cottage, yard entrance, yard and premises, boundary wall between yard and garden, and Meadow Mill house (probably Meadow Cottage).
In 1982, two buttresses were constructed to ensure structural integrity the rolling mill. Consolidation work began in August 2003 to allow the building to form part of the Greenfield Valley Heritage Park.

Event and Historical Information:
In 1787, the Greenfield Copper and Brass Company built a copper rolling mill at Greenfield. In 1814, Thomas Williams? son, Owen Williams, and his former sales director Pascoe Grenfell bought the Rolling Mill from the Greenfield Copper and Brass Company. In 1818, a 38- year lease on the site was arranged between Sir Pyers Mostyn of Talacre and Owen Williams, Pascoe Grenfell, William Grenfell and Charles Pascoe Grenfell. By 1833, the mill appears to have been in the hands of the Grenfell family (Pascoe Grenfell & Sons). The mill continued working until 1847. The site was taken over in the mid 1850s by Newton Keates, who used the mill to roll lead sheets and pipes until 1867. Between 1868-70, a tin plate works was opened but production appears to have ceased in favour of brass rolling and wire drawing. The mill closed in 1891. A subsequent lease of the site was arranged between Sir Pyers Mostyn of Talacre and Frederick John Coverdale, Charles Ithell Bethell and Henry Coverdale. However, the site was unoccupied when it was sold in September 1895 by Messrs Churton, Elphick and Co. The next recorded leaseholder was Messrs Eyre & Co who used the site for rubber grinding and washing. Part of the site continued in use as a coal yard until the derelict mill was purchased by the Delyn Borough Council in the 1970s.

Sources include:
Davies, K and Williams, C J, 1977, The Greenfield Valley, Holywell Town Council
Davies, K 1979, the 18th century Copper and Brass Industries odf the Greenfield Valley in Transactions of the Honorable Society of Cymmrodorian, Denbigh
Frost, P, 2003, Meadow Mill: Greenfield Valley Heritage Park, Phase 2 Archaeological Watching Brief, Castlering Archaeology, Report No 133.
Pennant, T, 1796, History of the Parish of Whiteford and Holywell
Morgan, D, 1984, Greenfield Valley, Holywell in Archaeology in Clwyd, No 6, Clwyd County Council, Depart of Architecture, Planning and Estates, Many 1984, pg 17-19

Maritime officer, August 2008.