Bourne Mill, Colchester

St John's Abbey was founded as a priory in 1096 and granted abbey status in 1104.[1] By 1311 Bourne Mill belonged to St John's Abbey, and may have been the Abbey's mill from the time of its foundation.[2] Its name is first recorded in c. 1240 and derives from the small stream, or bourne, south of Colchester which drove the mill.[2] It was a corn mill throughout the Middle Ages, and was possibly rebuilt in c. 1326.[2] Its pond was the Abbey's fishpond.[2]

At the dissolution of the Abbey in 1539, the mill and pond passed through a number of hands before being sold to John Lucas.[2][3] John Lucas built a mansion on the site of the Abbey (subsequently destroyed during the Civil War).[3] His son, Thomas, built a fishing lodge in 1591, incorporating elements of the former Abbey and his arms above the doorway.[2][3] The gable ends are in the Dutch style, and incorporate a chimney at each end. [2]

In 1640 the fishing lodge was fitted out as a fulling mill and run by Flemish refugees.[3] In about 1840 it then became a cornmill and remained as such until the 1930s.[3] The conversion to a cornmill resulted in the insertion of an upper floor and a sack hoist.[2]

The descendants of John Lucas continued to hold it until 1917.[2] It was acquired by the National Trust in 1936 from the last miller, Alfred Pulford, after its shaft broke.[3][4] The early history of the Trust's ownership of the mill was unsatisfactory, and by 1950 it had become derelict.[4] At that point it was Grade I listed.[5] It was converted into a house; the machinery was restored in 1966.[2][3][4]