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Water mills were probably first brought to this country by the Anglo Saxons, but the first written reference to any mills in the parish comes in the Domesday survey of 1086. Two mills are recorded at Combe and Hartrow. The entry for Combe, now Combe Sydenham records that the mill was ‘sine censu’ or without value. In other words it produced no income for its lord. That at Hartrow was recorded with an income of 6d per annum. To put that in context nationally, the lowest rent in the country was in Dorset at 3d, but the highest in Cambridgeshire at £6. The nearby mill at Torre was valued at 10 shillings.

Domesday does not tell us anything else about the mills in the 11th Century including where exactly they were located. This illustration from a 14th century prayer book gives us some idea of what such buildings might have looked like. The picture shows a single storey, thatched, and wattle and daub built structure, with iron hinges and a lock indicating the value of the contents. The mill wheel and pond is to the right, and at the extreme right can be seen eels swimming into eel traps. Eels and other as payment or part payment for rent

The earliest detailed record of a mill in the parish is housed at the Somerset Record Office and is a lease for the rent of a mill in Curdon dated 1326. It is only a few lines long but tells an enormous amount about life in the parish at the time

Lease for life of Joan of a watermill, watercourse and 1½ roods of land in the waterleats at Corunden next to the tenement of Agatha la Hert, to hold with mulcture of Joan's tenants at Capyton, Estcot and Corundon reserving to Joan the watercourse when it is necessary to water the waterleats.
Rent 1 4/7d a year and 22 geese on Lammas Day for the land also to grind Joan's corn free of toll.

The lease was between a landlady called Joan, and two men who agreed to rent the mill for a payment of part cash and part payment in kind. As well as agreeing to the lease on the mill itself, the lease also specifies that they have the right to use the water to drive the mills – except when Joan herself needs it to water her watermeadows. The manor court records for Stogumber do not survive, but other records both locally and nationally are full of disputes arising about rights to use water courses.

The lessees also acquired a guaranteed flow of customers for their mill – this is the system of mulcture whereby tenants were obliged to use their landlords mill and none other.

This was not necessarily their cheapest or best option and mulcture was understandably deeply unpopular, as were millers themselves who were widely seen as greedy and dishonest

This system of mulcture helps to explain why there were two mills rather than one at the hamlet of Curdon : one was owned by the manor of Rowden as we have just seen, and the other was owned by Stogumber manor. Each would have had a separate supply of custom associated with their particular manor.

This map dated 1796 shows the two mills clearly. That at the bottom right survives and is known as Curdon Mill. By this stage both were worked by the same miller and one operated as a saw mill. The mill at the top left is no longer in existence.

A closer look at the now non existent mill shows how far away from the stream it was positioned. The leat carrying water to the mill is no longer traceable but the race carrying water away from the mill can be seen crossing the fields at Curdon where it runs under the road and away across more fields to join the stream again at Woolston.

The now dry mill pond is all that remain of this mill, first recorded in the 14th Century.

Flour mills required hard stones to avoid stone grit being mixed in with the flour produced, and local stone was not up to the task. Millstones were imported from the Forest of Dean and probably from further afield as well. They had to be periodically re-grooved or dressed which was a skilled task undertaken by a millwright.

Eventually they became too worn to be of use and now turn up in some surprising places…..