Brewhurst Mill
This postcard of Brewhurst Mill, was produced by Cecil V.G.C. Travers of Brighton and Hove. In the photograph, the miller can be seen peering out of the window and was, perhaps, one of the Botting family which ran the mill from 1851 to 1918.
The card was posted from Loxwood in 1910 to Harry Graysmark of Woking. At the time, he was a telegraph messenger aged fourteen. Annie, who was the sender, remains unidentified,
The Mill has existed since at least 1500, but a major fire in 1890 destroyed the original two upper floors. It is not known how long the rebuilding took, which resulted in the present external appearance shown in a photograph from 1995.
The original overshot waterwheel below the ground floor was supplemented by the external wheel used when the original was inoperable in times of flood. The original is still in place but no longer functioning and is deeply covered in silt. In 1928 a Blackthorn 41 HP oil engine was installed. This ran all the machinery until 1981, although commercial grinding ceased in 1968. It has been restored and has been known to operate on special occasions.
This plan of Brewhurst MIll and surroundings (c.1900) shows the Loxwood stream, millpond and tributary in dark blue, and the Wey and Arun canal in light blue. The relevant features are identified by numbers:
1. Mill
2. Miller's cottage
3. Principal residence
4. Stables
5. Barn
The pond is now heavily silted and overgrown and no longer clearly identifiable, as it was in the postcard at the top of this page.
