Essex Days Out

Just five minutes walk from us is a hidden National Trust gem. Bourne Mill is, according to the NT ‘a verdant oasis in suburban Colchester’. Heading south out of Colchester on Mersea Road, just on the outskirts of New Town, is Bourne Pond,  a haven for birds, and sited on the eastern side is the mill.

The side fronting onto the ‘pond’ makes it look like a small cottage. But from the rear you can appreciate the height differential that made it perfect for milling.

According to ’Growth and decline in Colchester, 1300-1525 By R. H. Britnell’, available on the amazing Google Books, in 1360 one Thomas Deynes the baker was amerced for taking excessive toll at Bourne Mill. And from that same source you can find that Nikolaus Pevsner  thought it ”a delightful piece of Late Elizabethan Playfulness”. If you want a bit more info on mills in Colchester in this period click here.

The waterwheel is still operational, and evidently restored earlier in 2009 with the same steel as used in Antony Gormley’s ‘Angel of the North’ (a wonderful sculpture which you have to go and see if you are in the North East).

And whilst not the longest visit you will ever make to a National Trust property, it is a cheap visit, and worth seeking out if you are in the area on the rare dates it is open to the public. There is a trail alongside the river that leads you to Cannock Mill about a half a mile away. It’s not a salubrious start to this walk (down the redbrick steps by Brookside Close past the graffiti), but you’ll get to see a few squirrels.  This area was cleared several years ago with the help of Prudential PLC, and there’s an interesting newsletter about the work on the BTCV website although as a long-time resident of New Town the newsletter’s reference to levels of deprivation in the area seem a bit OTT!

Once you get to the far end of the walk you will find yourself on Old Heath Road.  Turn right, admiring Cannock Mill, and Cannock Mill House, and cross the road and take the unmade road that carries along the side of the river, and you will end up shortly at another hidden open water area. (And if you want to go further afield, you’re close to the Colne, which you can cross and walk up either bank for a while, and even head out on the Wivenhoe Trail.)

More pictures and info at the National Trust website. And there are a few interesting architectural and historic snippets on the ‘Unlocking Essex’ part of the Essex CC website.