# Bone Crushing & Wood Turning Water Mill, Derbyshire - May 09



## 85 Vintage (May 14, 2009)

I first spotted this a couple of years ago whilst driving along the A6, but dismissed it as it just looked like a small cottage. More recently I was walking in the area with my girlfriend and spotted it again. Only I realised it wasn't 'just a small cottage' but a water mill.

A couple of hundred yards up the path before the mill, there's a sigh pointing to "Bone Crushing Mill"

From some seraching i've done i've found reference to two uses as a Bone Crushing Mill and a Bobbin/Saw/Wood Turning Mill, both mention the Mill being worked by the Frost family. I'll post some info taken from the links I've found. I would put it in my own words, but there's not masses of info and putting it into my own words would probably just end up complicating things 

The first, about it being a bone crushing mill gives a bit of a insight to "Rag and Bone Men" as I'd heard of them but never really know where the bone part came into it.



> BYGONE INDUSTRIES OF THE PEAK: BONE MILLING AND DUNG PROCESSING
> Memories are fading of the once regular rounds of the rag-and-bone men and the younger generation may ask why anyone would want to buy tatty rags and smelly bones. The answer is that the former were recycled for paper making and the latter for glue, gelatine, fertiliser and pottery manufacture. (In 1799 Josiah Spode founded the Minton works at Stoke on Trent, using bone ash for his 'natural soft paste' porcelain - i.e. bone china.)
> Animal bones have been used for land improvement for hundreds of years and demand grew alongside the agricultural revolution. Bones, and the bony cores of ox-horns, were crushed at water-powered grinding mills between iron wheels or rollers. Sometimes the bones were first boiled in cauldrons to extract the grease, otherwise bone manure attracted vermin, birds and insects. Farey refers to bones also being pounded under forge hammers.
> 
> Tanyards were a good source of bones and horns. More unusually, Sheffield knife-handle makers sold their horn trimmings direct to local farmers, as did horn and bone button manufacturers. Strutts of Belper asked their workpeople and their children to save bones for which they were paid 1s.6d. (7.5p) per hundredweight, taking wheelbarrows full at a time. Strutts had the bones broken up at Makeney forge for spreading on their own pasture land. Farey noted that 'several Ship Loads of the Bones, collected in London (some from the churchyards as I have heard) find their way to the interior of Derbyshire annually and are there ground by mills.'



The mill itself,


> He listed nine bone mills in the county, including one at Ashford with iron waterwheels powered by the Wye, and one described as the slag mill rollers in the Via Gellia at Bonsall Dale. The Ashford mill later became a saw mill





> In the late 19th/early 20th century, James Frost operated as a bone crusher at Bakewell field, Sheldon, near Ashford



Taken from here.

Onto the bobbin mill info..


> The existence of Lumford Mill at Bakewell, which functioned as a cotton mill until the end of the 19th century, may support the local tradition that bobbins formed the early output of a mill in Ashford Dale. Built in the 1870s as a water-powered saw and wood-turning mill, it stands on the river Wye and comprises a small complex of buildings which together house three water-wheels. Operated by the Frost family, the mill went on to produce carts and wheelbarrows. for self assembly.
> 
> Reconstruction of Ashford Mill was begun in 1977 by the Arkwright Society with the cooperation of the owners, the Trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement. Joint funding from the Chatsworth Estate and the Peak Park Planning Board has enabled the Arkwright Society to undertake renovation of the water-wheels. One of these is a rare survivor of a type with ventilated buckets, an advanced design which enabled air to escape as the buckets were filled with water, thus improving performance. Housed in a separate small building is the Sheldon wheel, so named because it drove the pump taking drinking water from Pot Boil spring up to the village of Sheldon. The system was in operating between the 1880, and 1950s.



Taken from here.

After looking on the Arkwright Society's website, they've got it down as a bobbin mill. That's probably down to being associated with bobbin making is a better than being associated with bone crushing. The section for the mill on their site is "coming soon", but it doesn't look like much renovation has actually been done to the water wheels them selves.















































Sluice gate mechanism










Bit hard to tell which is the wheel with perforated buckets now...










There's a smaller water wheel in the remains of small brick building

Leading to it..









The building/wheel is smack bang next to the river.

Can see the river in the background of this shot..

























Rest of the pics are here and here.

Off to bedski's, will have a look at he thread tomorrow when it's a more reasonable hour to see if i've made any mistakes


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## freebird (May 14, 2009)

Excellent report and great pics! Love the look of the place.


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## Seahorse (May 14, 2009)

Just absolutely love your find. 

And one day, those boards on the doors and windows are going to fall off.


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## Urban Mole (May 14, 2009)

Wow nice report and nice photos to back it up 
This looks pretty much complete, its a wonder why it hasnt been restored, although it does look like its in the middle of no where.


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## Sabtr (May 14, 2009)

Wow what a place! This is just the type of place I would live in - a gorgeous building as a base and rusty trinkets outside that I could fix and use to power the property. The building really needs to be saved and re-used. 

An excellent find and a great write up.

Thanks for sharing.


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## Gangeox (May 14, 2009)

Good stuff mate  this place always looks good, last time i walked past this place a few years ago, a bloke was loading a trailer with logs out of the one on the right. I had a sneaky peak but couldnt see anything but logs so i'm guessing theres not much inside


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## 85 Vintage (May 14, 2009)

Cheers guys 

I managed to get a glimpse betweent the doors of the building with wheels on either side. Couldn't really see that much. From what I could tell, the shaft from the wheel in the first pic was still intact and there seemed to be some kind of cage around it, so there could be more left in that building. Also in there was a big Arkwright Society Sign, so they must've done something to the place in the past, maybe it was even opened to the public.

I have emailed them once, about 3 weeks ago but got no reply. My girlfriend did say I wouldn't expect a reply as they're a bit stuck up. I'll try again though


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## oldscrote (May 14, 2009)

Fascinating,love all the gearing even a pawl and ratchet,wonderful find.


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## Neosea (May 14, 2009)

Nice! Good find 85V


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## Foxylady (May 14, 2009)

What a fantastic find! Gorgeous building...great to see such a lot of machinery remaining. 
Amazing history too. 'Rag & Bone Men', 'Bone China'...it all makes sense now!


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## sallybear (May 14, 2009)

Oooh best place Ive seen in ages, I want to go there now!!! This is wonderful, history is ace and pics are great. I really love that shot with the steps! 

Great one!!


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## 250swb (May 16, 2009)

Nice photo's and report!

The mill is just up the road from me and if anybody visits it the extra short walk up river gets you to the sough (drain) that flows into the River Wye from the Magpie Mine (up on the top of the hill near Sheldon). Magpie Mine is obviously worth a visit, but its sough exit can be pretty exciting after heavy rain.

Steve


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## Tieljo (Jun 2, 2009)

Great report, and an interesting bit of history too!

You should definitely try e-mailing again, I'd love to see a bit of the inside, especially if there is still some machinery left in there!

Tieljo


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## smileysal (Jun 2, 2009)

What a gorgeous place, love those water wheels. And the buildings themselves. Hope the Arkwright Society get their act together and get this place sorted out. It's a shame to see it like this.

Excellent pics mate, I do like it, I like it a lot.

 Sal


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## andful (Oct 10, 2009)

Pretty sure these are the 2 buildings off the A6 near to Ashford in the water, around 25 years ago they where let out as holiday flats and there was a terrible accident here


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## Locksley (Oct 10, 2009)

andful said:


> Pretty sure these are the 2 buildings off the A6 near to Ashford in the water, around 25 years ago they where let out as holiday flats and there was a terrible accident here



Really? Ok now I'm intrigued...

Great photos btw.


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## TK421 (Oct 10, 2009)

Great find 85V, I love it when you often take somewhere for granted, and then it turns out to be a real gem. I agree with Sausage, what a great place to live in and restore. Great report.


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## bricoleur (Oct 10, 2009)

andful said:


> Pretty sure these are the 2 buildings off the A6 near to Ashford in the water, around 25 years ago they where let out as holiday flats and there was a terrible accident here



Very interesting. Do you know any more details?

bricoleur


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## JandChar (Oct 10, 2009)

Amazing mechanics!! wow. great find and pics!!


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## spacepunk (Oct 11, 2009)

Fab stuff there mate.


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## andful (Nov 10, 2009)

If its the 2 buildings in question near Ashford in the water, if i rember correctly 2 teenagers where killed by carbon monoxide poisoning in one of the buildings, i think they used to be let out as stopovers for hikers etc years ago, the 2 girls where sadly killed by the fumes off a night heater.


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