Old Mill Lane
Old Mill Lane
The Old Mill Lane Heritage Trail is designed to showcase some of the Old Mill Lane’s historical sites, key landmarks and people’s stories. It offers opportunities to learn more about Barnsley’s past amid today’s urban setting.
Old Mill Lane’s history is reflected in various historical sites and landmarks. Some of these can still be found:
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Former Old Mill Lane goods yard
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Former Old Mill Wesleyan Reform Union chapel
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The Fleets lake
Have a wander down Old Mill Lane and see if you can spot where these buildings once stood and other historical features.
This trail is one of the five trails created as part of the Love Where You Live programme. All research were conducted by Project Archivist James Stevenson with invaluable support and input from Councillors Phillip Lofts, Jo Newing, and Clive Pickering. [are there more Councillors to include?]
Martin and Hannah Stanley datestone
Along a brick wall on Old Mill Lane [is this still there?], you will find a datestone marked ‘S. M. H. 1776’. The initials stand for Martin and Hannah Stanley, married in 1771.
In 1777, the Barnsley Enclosure Survey listed Martin Stanley as the proprietor of the closes numbered 661-664 at Old Mill, which include both the mill itself and a ‘new-built tenement’. This datestone would relate to the latter building.
[further information about S.M.H. old mill?]
Old Mill
Research for the Old Mill has been referenced from the ‘Water Mills and Furnaces on the Yorkshire Dearne and its Tributaries’ by Tom Umpleby, published by Wakefield Historical Publications, 2000, pages 131-133. The evidence assembled in the volume suggests that the Old Mill was situated where Old Mill Lane crosses the River Dearne, on the west side of the road and the south side of the river.
It was a water-powered mill, with the water likely to have been diverted from the river into a mill race (channel) at the point where a weir is still visible on the river, then passing through the mill buildings before re-joining the river.
It was a mill for grinding corn and dated from at least the 15th century. This original building was taken down in 1802, when it was described as ‘Naylor’s old corn mill’. Four pairs of mill stones and dressing machinery were offered for sale in that year.
The same year, 1802, the mill was rebuilt and fitted out for dressing and spinning flax as part of the locally important linen industry. Once again, the mill was powered by water, but in 1828 new technology was introduced and the mill became powered by steam. The mill remained as a linen mill until at least 1850, when it was marked as such on the Ordnance Survey map surveyed in that year and published in 1852.
Later in the 19th century, the building was absorbed into the premises of the Dearne Paper Mill.
