Beadlow Mill

The River Flitt at Beadlow July 2010

Bedfordshire's Historic Environment Record [HER] details all historic buildings and landscape features in the county. It is now available on-line as part of the Heritage Gateway website. A mill at Beadlow existed in 1140 when the Manor of Beadlow was demised to support Beadlow Priory, as a park and a mill at a place called Trebridge are mentioned in the document. The entry for Beadlow Mill [HER 9130] states that it is first mentioned in 1294 and last mentioned in 1824. Certainly by the time of the inclosure map of Clophill of 1826 [MA55] there is no sign of a mill in Beadlow.

The mill lay south of Beadlow Priory and, no doubt, served that Benedictine house until its closure in 1435. The HER entry notes: "It appears that the water courses in this area may have been altered since the mill fell into disuse".

Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service has a lease of the Manor and Farm of Beadlow of 1538, the last least, presumably, granted by the Abbot of Saint Albans as Lord of the Manor of Beadlow. The manor was leased to John Fissher of Clophill for 99 years [X4/1]. The lease includes the clause that Fissher was to keep repaired "the leaded chapel", presumably the chapel of the old Beadlow Priory and the adjoining mill. In 1654 Saint John Charnock of Hulcote mortgaged all land in Beadlow including Beadlow mill and ten acres of meadow in occupation of Thomas Middleton and John Goodman [L4/51].