The Gnosall Parish Map is the first map that shows the mill; it was
published in 1880, some 40 years after the mill’s construction.
The Ordnance Survey 25-inch map of Gnosall published in 1900,
shows the mill to be out of use by then.
After milling had finished, the premises were used for repacking flour and became a bakery
and grocer’s and general shop, and remained so until the 1970s.
This photograph is the large two storey building, shown on the 1910
survey plan next to Plardiwick Lane.
The 1910 plan indicates its many uses. It was later used for general
storage and in the 1950s once housed a printing business.
A comparison of the 1880 and 1900 maps shows that the mill had
been expanded with what appears to be a warehouse. It had external
sack hoists on the top floor on both the canal-side and the side facing
Plardiwick Lane..
1900
It is evident that the warehouse next to the main body of the mill, was
taller than the main mill building. The mill chimney was also taller
than it appears today.
This photograph taken from the Plardiwick Road shows the oven
block and chimney and warehouse.
The building alongside Plardiwick Road and the warehouse were
demolished in the 1970’s, during the mill’s conversion into a
residential dwelling. Coton Mill gained new architectural features
such as new first floor windows, facing on to the canal during the
conversion.
Coton Steam Mill and the adjoining house, fronting Newport Road,
were built in the early 1840s by Charles Madeley, a builder and
stonemason, who had settled in Gnosall some years earlier. Madeley
owned a builder’s yard with its own canal basin and wharf that was
situated on land between the canal and Mill Lane. He also built houses
on Mill Lane and built Moreton School.
In 1845 Madeley put the mill and house up for sale:
Amos Tomkinson, who came from the Penkridge area, bought the mill
in 1846 and died aged 45, in early 1850.
Prior to his death, Tomkinson had tried to let the Mill in 1848, stating
that he was retiring. He would only have been 43 and was perhaps
not a well man.
Sarah Tomkinson his widow advertised the Mill to be let again in 1850.
(George Rogers in advert is Sarah Tomkinson’s father).
A Dispersal Sale Notice of the Tomkinson’s possessions was placed in
the Staffordshire Advertiser in 1851. It gives a good indication of the
nature of a village millers life in the 1850s.
(NB. - the Mr Willder mentioned in the newspaper item was the
auctioneer and not the Willder from Plardiwick)
William Willder, the tenant farmer at the nearby Plardiwick Manor farm bought the mill at some time in the 1850’s,
although evidence suggests that he had an interest as a lessee from at least 1851. (He is described as ‘Miller & Farmer’
on 1851 census).
The Willder family owned several properties in Coton including the Navigation Inn opposite to the Mill.
Its thought that the running of Coton Mill remained with the Willder
family until the property was known to be rented by Sheaff and Kemp,
grocers from Stafford in 1896 though there is no indication that they
were ever millers. You can just see the letters “MP” from ‘Kemp’ on the
wall in this photograph.
The 1911 census shows that Joseph Walwyn was managing the shop
for Sheaff and Kemp.
He bought the premises from the Willder family in February 1914 for
£500
Sheaff and Kemp were there in 1911 when a property survey shows the “Old flour mill, now disused’
Owners and Occupiers
The Property
Joseph Walwyn passed ownership of the Mill to his son Walter in June 1943. Joseph died 2 years later in 1945.
Walter Walwyn continued with the business and sold the premises in 1978 after which it became a domestic residence.
The 1910 Finance Act Rating Survey shows an attached brick-built
oven, with its own chimney, next to Plardiwick Lane shown outlined in
blue on the plan here.
This photograph shows the premises after the removal of the
Warehouse.
Coton Mill
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