Mills of Ravensden

This page was compiled by Trevor Stewart

According to the Victoria County History  there was a mill attached to the holdings of the Barony of Beauchamp in Ravensden, which was held by William de Beauchamp when he died in 1262.  It is probably identical with the mill situated at Tilwick (Dilewyk), owned by Ida de Beauchamp in 1265, from which Richard de Braham took one iron fusil, an iron chain and the sails, and carried them off to his house at Ravensden.  The next mention of a windmill is in 1610, when Gerard FitzJeffrey, a member of the family who owned a manor in Ravensden, left it by will to his mother.  

The Gostwicks owned a water-mill in the parish, which was alienated, along with the rest of their Ravensden property, to Sarah Duchess of Marlborough in 1731.  In 1802 John Covington, yeoman, was indicted for erecting two windmills in Ravensden, near the Bedford to Kimbolton highway, and so obstructing the king's road.  They were doubtless demolished at this time, and at the present day there are no mills, either water or wind, in the parish.