Northover Mill, Setting and history By Nancy Hollinrake

R. Parrett

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BRISTOL

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Glastonbury

Flat Holm

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county boundary

alluvium peat bogs

Steep Holm

Location

Glastonbury could be considered as a gateway to the Somerset Moors and Levels,

attractive for its abundance of wetland wildlife, large flocks of migratory birds and

unique lifestyle and traditional industries. The moors, designated an Area of

Outstanding Natural Beauty, are accessible via a network of footpaths, cyclepaths and

quiet rural roads. The RSPB nature reserves are especially popular for bird-lovers.

Transport and communications

The town lies at the junction of the levels and the higher land to the north and east.

This location, convenient for transport by water and land and capable of drawing

resources from a wide variety of habitats, was responsible for the outstanding success

of Glastonbury Abbey: the greatest monastery in the British Isles. As well as the

archaeology and architecture of the Abbey, Glastonbury is famous for the Iron Age

Lake Village and the Dark Age occupation on the Tor. Northover Mill lies at a nexus

of the archaeological remains which demonstrate the role Glastonbury Abbey played

in the development of industry and transport throughout the Middle Ages, a side of its

heritage which has received little attention.

The canal connecting the river Brue with the Abbey and the town has been dated by

radiocarbon dates to the 10th

century, the time of the great abbot and statesman St.

Dunstan, making it the oldest closed-end, purpose-built canal in the British Isles.

Dunstan was engaged in a large building programme and would have used the canal

to transport stone, iron and timber from the river barges to the Abbey. The millstream

serving Northover and Beckery Mills would have severed the canal and brought about

its demise.

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Plan of archaeological features.

The district called Beckery became the main industrial site for the Abbey, largely due

to its proximity to major transport routes: the River Brue defines its western and

southern boundaries and the narrowest piece of moorland between Street and

Glastonbury was bridged here by an ancient causeway. Pomparles Bridge, mentioned

in Mallory as the location where the wounded King Arthur commanded Sir Bedivere

to cast his sword Excalibur.

Beckery

The island of Beckery would have been the first landfall for visitors and goods

travelling the River Brue to Glastonbury until the Abbey diverted the river in the 13th

century to avoid paying dues for using the portion of the river that passed through the

lands of the Bishop of Wells.. There are two islands called Beckery: one in Wexford

Harbour, Ireland, and one at Glastonbury and it is thought that it is a rare example of

an Irish place-name in England. The name is often interpreted as deriving from the

Irish becc-eriu, meaning "little Ireland", however others suggest the name means

"bee-keeper's island", which probably makes more sense. The Wexford Beckery (or

Beggary) still displays the ruins of a small 6th

century monastery founded by St. Ibar,

while the crest of Beckery, Glastonbury, carries the small monastery of St. Mary

Magdalene, which has been designated a Scheduled Monument (number 427),

affording it the maximum protection available to archaeological sites, since

excavations by Philip Rahtz in the 1960s found the chapel and its cemetery were

dated to the centuries preceding the Norman Conquest. The chapel contained an altar

to St. Brigid, giving the name ‘Brides’ to the surrounding fields, which must have

been used for the upkeep of the monastery, and was the focus of substantial numbers

of pilgrims from Ireland.

Industry

As well as transport, the river Brue was also used for its industrial potential:

A mill and a fish weir on the Brue near Pomparles Bridge are mentioned in the

Glastonbury chartulary as already old by 11931.

Industrial activity was discovered during rescue excavations at The Mount.

Roman and Dark Age pottery finds may indicate a landing stage existed here

at this period, but it is also possible that iron working on the site dated to the

10th

to 12th

centuries began in earlier centuries.

By the 12th

century two mills are mentioned at Beckery, indicating that the

millstream was in place by this time. Northover fulling mill, listed Grade II, is

still in existence and historic maps suggest that Beckery mill was immediately

adjacent to the Bailey's factory, also listed Grade II.

The original course of the River Brue is generally taken to follow the

millstream along Dyehouse Lane, another testament to the cloth trade in this

area.

There is also documentary evidence for medieval tanning and a medieval

blade mill (where metal would be beaten flat) in the area.

William Rendel (tanner) and Robert Skynner (skinner) are recorded here in

1514.

In the 19th century Clark, Morlands and Baily’s set up their tannery and sheepskin

manufacturing businesses which at their peak employed over 5000 people. Their

closure in the 80s/90s was a great loss to Glastonbury.

1 Glastonbury Chartulary III, no. 1301.

The 19th

century industrial complex created by the Morland and Bailey companies

were therefore located on an industrial site of some antiquity. The factories

producing, among other things:

Morland sheepskin coats and boots;

sheepskin rugs;

Bailey's sporting goods (including Mohammed Ali's boxing gloves);

bearskin headgear for The Brigade of Guards;

occasionally an armoured car would arrive with gold braid to be stitched onto

parade saddles for royalty and higher officers.

These industries have now been closed, leaving behind buildings, industrial

installations and a sewage farm designed to deal with the tannery waste from this site

and the, now closed, factories and tanneries owned by Clark's in Street (c1 mile to the

south).

Architecture

After clearance and infrastructure works on the site by SWRDA, the buildings that

remain standing are, from south to north:

this small stone cottage next to the mill stream was the first building acquired

by Morland and Son. This incorporates remnants of the medieval Northover

mill which once belonging to the Abbey and functioned as a fulling mill for

the cloth trade (listed by English Heritage);

a small collection of Victorian work shops and offices built from Glastonbury

brick for the Morland sheepskin factory;

a 1930s glass and steel modernist factory, an early example of the famous and

influential Bauhaus style designed by Ayles, a Glastonbury architect, for the

finishing of Morland sheepskin coats and boots;

two 19th

century factories built of blue Lias from the Street Hill quarries for

Bailey’s, a Glastonbury company making sporting goods; Mohammed Ali’s

boxing gloves were made here. These buildings, also listed, are important

examples of Victorian tanneries with many original features still intact.

This fine group of buildings can be likened to a physical reference book of the history

of industrial structures, ranging from medieval stone and lime mortar to Victorian

stone, brick, cement and iron to 20th

century glass and steel. They make an interesting

contrast and compliment to Glastonbury’s world-famous medieval architecture –

religious, domestic, commercial and industrial.

The listed buildings are protected by legislation and cannot be demolished, while the

other remaining buildings have been retained by the site owners because of their

architectural value. They will stand as a testament to the world-class industries

created by generations of local skills and expertise while, at the same time, offering

inspiration to the designers of the new buildings on the site in order to produce the

architectural gems of the future.

Industrial activity has proved successful on this site for at least a millenium, proving it

to be a sustainable land-use in the past. British industry has been experiencing

difficulties and challenges in recent decades but past experience suggests that if it

could thrive anywhere, it would be on a site such as this.