River Wye, Buckinghamshire

File:River Wye Wooburn.jpg

The Wye near Wooburn Industrial Estate

The River Wye is a Buckinghamshire a river 9 miles long. It rises in the Buckinghamshire Chilterns and flows down to High Wycombe and on down to Bourne End, where it falls into the River Thames on the reach above Cookham Lock.

It is commonly believed that High Wycombe takes its name from the river, but the river is not known to have borne that name nor any known name before the eighteenth century, and it is also suggested that the name of the river is a back-formation from that of the town.

The Wye now runs mostly underground through High Wycombe.

Once the river powered a great many mills, but today Pann Mill, at the eastern end of Wycombe, is the last remaining watermill on the River Wye.

Mills

There is a long history of water-mills being operated in the Wye Valley which drops about 200 feet in its 9-mile course. The Domesday Book records eighteen of them in the nine miles between West Wycombe and the Thames.

By the seventeenth century there were fulling mills as well as corn mills. A Court of Survey in 1627 lists six mills running upstream from the boundary with Wooburn Parish: the paper mill, Tredway, Loudwater, Bassetsbury, Chalfonts (Rye) and Bridge. There were by this time at least two paper mills: Glory in Wooburn Green and Hedge in Loudwater. By 1636 another paper mill had been established in the parish of West Wycombe and by 1656 another at Marsh, below Wycombe. At this time paper was made from rags and by the end of the eighteenth century more than 150 men were recorded as papermakers in the valley.

In 1816 there were 32 paper mills (some of which also milled corn), four which only milled corn and one which was also a saw mill. This was when paper making reached its peak in the valley. However, the introduction of the Fourdrinier machine, which produced a continuous roll of paper, led to widespread unemployment and many families went to the cotton mills of Lancashire. In 1830 there were riots when machine wreckers broke the machines at Ash, Marsh Green and Loudwater. Twenty men were punished by penal transportation to Tasmania.

Papermaking continued at the Soho and Glory mills till the end of the twentieth century, though the water-mills gave way to steam in the mid-nineteenth century. The Soho mill in Wooburn was the prime supplier of high-grade colour paper till its demise in 1984.

Shown in order from highest to lowest. Note that Marsh Green to Treadway are on an extra cut parallel to Pan to Loudwater Mills. The number is that given by registration in the eighteenth century.

Name	Recorded	Last record	No	Type	OS Ref
West Wycombe Mill	1311	1900~		sawmill (18th C)	[SU83739415 SU 8373 9415]
Upper, Francis or Little Mill	1681	1903	423	paper	[SU84439400 SU 8443 9400]
Lower, Mill End or Fryer’s Mill	1505	1915	422	corn & paper	[SU84909384 SU 8490 9384]
Lord, Frog or Ball Mill	1717	1883	421	corn & paper	[SU85509363 SU 8550 9363]
Ash or Lane’s Mill (Broughton/Wynkle’s) (2)	1596	1895	419, 420	paper	[SU86009339 SU 8600 9339]
Temple Mill (Gosenham)	1227	1895		corn	[SU86319315 SU 8631 9315]
Bridge Mill	1185	1932		corn	[SU86539290 SU 8653 9290]
Pann Mill	1185	1967		corn	[SU87059276 SU 8705 9276]
Rye Mill (Bradshaw’s, Sale’s, Bowler’s, New)	1346	1931	411	paper	[SU87469260 SU 8746 9260]
Bassetbury Mill	1411	1931		corn	[SU87719240 SU 8771 9240]
Bowden Mill (2)	1235	1939	415, 416	corn & paper	[SU88309220 SU 8830 9220]
Wycombe Marsh Mill (Lower Marsh)	1133	1993	414	paper	[SU88809195 SU 8880 9195]
King’s Mill (New)	1725	1939	417	paper	[SU87469260 SU 8746 9260]
Loudwater Mill (2)	1483	1939	430, 431	paper	[SU90149079 SU 9014 9079]
Snakely or Ford’s Mill	1767	1970	428	paper	[SU90279036 SU 9027 9036]
Hedge Mill	1235	1970	427	corn & paper	[SU90429012 SU 9042 9012]
Marsh Green or Upper Marsh Mill	1750	1816	412	corn & paper	[SU87909212 SU 8790 9212]
Beech Mill	1740	1900	413	paper	[SU88819155 SU 8881 9155]
Treadway Mill (Overshot's)	1682	1854	418	corn & paper	[SU89999056 SU 8999 9056]
Clapton Mill	1492	1922	429, 509	corn, metal & paper	[SU91008997 SU 9100 8997]
Glory Mill (2)	1235	2000	426	corn & paper	[SU91308950 SU9130 8950]
Lower Glory Mill	1631	1907	425	corn & paper	[SU91608895 SU 9160 8895]
Soho Mill	1705	1988	424	corn & paper	[SU90808770 SU 9080 8770]
Prince’s Mill (Egham Green) (3)	1730	1865	287, 288, 289	corn & paper	[SU90098736 SU 9009 8736]
Gunpowder Mill (Jackson’s)	1705	1980	286	corn & paper	[SU89788717 SU 8978 8717]
Hedsor Mill	1492	1980	285	corn & paper	[SU89628670 SU 8962 8670]
Lower Bourne End Mill	1719	1895	284	Corn & paper	[SU89488643 SU 8948 8643]