Weymouth - Melcombe Regis

Below : Sketch map based on Eric Ricketts original sketch in his "The Buildings of Old Weymouth" (Longmans of Weymouth - 1976) but with two windmill and one tidal mill site added and annotated (RC 2002)

Early maps Simplon 1624

Below : Granville Collins "Coasting pilot" (English Version) of 1693 shows the Melcombe Regis windmill as well as the Easton windmills on Portland. The French version below the English version shows more detail

Tithe Map (c1840) Not checked yet - but doubtful.

1st Edition OS map none

Present OS map

Google Maps

The Windmill Probably a post mill

The Millers 1619 - Mr Henry Russell (died in 1647)

1650 - William Seager (probably owned Joseph Russell - grandson of Henry)

Present site condition Redeveloped in C18th ?? Last recorded in 1720 ?

Notes and comments :

On November 8th in 1619^[1], Weymouth & Melcombe Regis Corporation granted a piece of land to Mr H Russell :

Grant to H Russell of ground lying without the Cuniger (now Bond Street) on the west side of the highway, towards the narrowe Cont (or cout) for a windmill.

Note : Moule suggests the narrowe cont being where Victoria Terrace now stands.

The following information relating to the Russell family was kindly sent to me by Kay Kearsey who lives near Frome, Somerset (in March 2018). Kay is researching the Mico family who lived in Melcombe Regis between 1607 & 1625.

Henry Russell (senior) who built the windmill was an Alderman of the town. His son, also Henry Russell, married Elizabeth Mico in 1623. She was the sister of Samuel Mico who left a legacy in his will of 1666 to Weymouth Corporation to support young men starting out in life. This legacy in the form of the Mico Charity is still in being now.

Henry Russel senior's will was made on 9th February 1647 and proved on 15th October in the same year. He bequeathed his windmill and the land it stood on to Joseph Russell his grandson (son of his son Joseph). The will mentions his wife Elizabeth, Elizabeth (nee Mico) his daughter in law, his son Stephen, two sons and a daughter (Ann Belgun ?) of his son Joseph. Land in Glanvilles Wotton is mentioned and Elizabeth Gonsalis my brother’s daughter. In a memo at the end of the will, he refers to his son Henry : ........ Memorandum and further to my will is before the sealing hereof that if in case my son Henry within written shall not come home from the East Indies in which voyage he now is, then I will that the house in which I dwell shall .... to my son Stephen Russell and his heirs for ever after the death and decease of my said wife and the said house where Mistress Barnard(?) now dwellers to remain to the heirs of my son Henry.

Christopher Johnstone in his Dorset Harbours^[2], claims to have found evidence from an early Tudor map and contemporary documents of a windmill in this same area in the late C15th but does not name his source !

Some interesting observations are made in Historic Towns of Dorset^[3] : An early Melcombe street name Bakeres strete whose location is now unknown appears in records of 1318. The original market area in Melcombe Regis was perhaps the quayside area between the present St Thomas & St Mary Street.

In 1578 the green existed here but was not leased by the town until 1608. The limit of the town to the east was the Coneygar ditch (& bank) until about 1660. It is shown on a map of 1539^[4] as a ditch but as a bank on a later map of 1597^[5] and named as Conybery Hills. The ditch was found to be very offensive in 1724.

In the 16th century, two forts The Blockhouse and The Roundhouse had been built to offer defence to the growing town of Melcombe Regis, the French having razed it to the ground in earlier times. On the 1539 map, there is what appears to be an unknown tower ........ the remains of an earlier windmill^[6] ??

On November 8th 1650 at a Hall^[7], the miller William Seager was fined for giving short measure : William Seager, Miller being convented before Mr Mayor & the company for selling of Meale by the short halfe pecke vizt, half a pint uopn every halfe peck which practice by his own confession hee hath used by the space of Five yeares last past, and one weeke with an other doth sell Twelve bushells of wheat in meale within this town of Weymouth & Melcombe Regis for which offence by way of Mulet hee refeereth himselfe to the censure of the company that the poore of each towne may reape the benifill of it. And the company takeing it into consideracon doc assesse his Fyne to Twenty pounds vizt: Ten pounds of it at Christmas neat and the other ten pounds at Lady Day next.

Later in 1666, an account^[8] : Account between Borough & an unnamed Collector of Melcombe Regis Town rents - amongst 22 items for land ........."for ye windmill 5s"

John Ogilby's London to Weymouth road map No 53 of 1675 (see above) clearly shows the windmill between the highway and Radipole lake. A sweep well for water is also shown but on the other side of the roadway - perhaps Thames Well (Tems Well) at Greenhill^[9]. The same windmill is also shown on his plate 60 - the Bristol to Weymouth road map.

Following Judge Jeffries Bloody Assize, 12 men were hung, drawn and quartered at Greenhill. An order was given to the Sheriff W Lewes on 14th October 1685 that their heads and quarters were then to be displayed at various locations in the borough .............. 4 quarters & 1 head to be placed "neere the windmill" ^[10] Not too good for business !!

From a survey of occupations in the years between 1561 & 1598 four bakers were noted but no millers. In a slightly later survey however in the early C17th, one miller is recorded - presumably working the mill erected on the land granted to Mr Russell in 1619.

A map of 1720 by J Owen^[11] and one of 1724 by Van Keulen^[12] shows a windmill in the same area suggesting that the mill was still standing at these dates.

Capt Greenville Collins' Coasting Pilot - a series of charts of Britain's coast published in 1693 following his 7 year survey, also shows the windmill to the west of Melcombe Regis.

Prior to the 1619 windmill, corn milling was perhaps carried out at watermills further up the river Wey. Watermills at Radipole, Broadwey & Preston do not appear to be of great age. The mill at Upwey was rebuilt in 1802 but is thought to have existed for several centuries before. A windmill is recorded on the Weymouth/Wyke boundary in the C14th - opposite the present Portwey Hospital site and there are records relating to a tidal mill on the marsh wall in Weymouth from the C16th

(see more detail in separate tidemill research by the writer RC).

Stone boats imported burres for millstones through Weymouth in the C17th - A Table of Petticumstumes in 1618^[13] mentions Burrs for Milstones the 100 - 4d.

The windmill's precise location is uncertain. However, a possibility is noted in a book published in 1829 by a Weymouth surgeon Mr George Ellis^[14] :

p141.........[17mo month ? Charles II = 1661] The King grants to Charles Gifford Esq all the Flete between Melcombe & Radipole from the windmill at Melcombe on the west of Radipole, a salt marsh, saltern at Wadebridge and a marsh at Brooke's Bridge.

...........This is a most important grant as it completely identifies the mill from whence the name of Melcombe is derived (* - RC). It was in existence in 1720 on the spot where Gloucester Lodge is erected.

p204 ...the site of the Almshouses and of the Mill, are daily getting unknown, as rows of houses are erected on the spot.

Mr Ellis would appear to be incorrect in supposing that the name Melcombe* (Miltown) was derived from this mill as it was only erected in 1619. His date of 1720 appears to be the latest record of the mill still in existence.

Are there records relating to the building of Gloucester Lodge ????? Built 1780 by Prince William Henry, 1st Duke of Gloucester with entry on side of building. The Royal Terrace block was built in 1816-8 with the houses between Royal Lodge/Royal Hotel in 1789;

Royal Crescent in 1805; Belvidere started in 1818 but last house 1850s;

Jack West & Maureen Attwool Illustrated History of Weymouth put the Lodge on the windmill site p35.

Footnotes :

^[1] Moule, Charters of Weymouth [DL] 1883; Vol IV [50]

^[2] C Johnson, Dorset Harbours, 1953 p70/71

^[3] Historic Towns of Dorset, K J Penn, DNHA Jan 1980.

^[4] Map of Dorset Coast 1539; British Library, (Cott, Aug I, i, 31,33)

^[5] Map of Weymouth 1597; British Library, (Cott, Aug, I, i, 32)

^[6] A conjecture by the author !

^[7] Weinstock, Weymouth Borough Minutes p86

^[8] Moule, Charters of Weymouth [DL] 1883; Vol V [60] 1660-6

^[9] Moule, H J, Charters & minutes of W & M R p144, V.59 Memo - Mr J Studley took the well from the

Borough at 2s per annum.

^[10] Moule, H J, Charters & minutes of W & M R p85 III 139 Minutes

^[11] J Owen & E Bowen, Britannia Depicta or Ogilby Improved 1720

^[12] Map of Weymouth & Portland 1724 by G Van Keulen from Le Nouveau et Grand Illuminant Flambleau de la Mer. This interesting map shows the Melcombe windmill and two town bridges ! Portland is rather distorted but shows the two windmills. The tidal mill wall in the backwater is also shown.

^[13] Moule, H J, Charters & minutes of W & M R p170 VI 80 Orders

^[14] Ellis, George Alfred - History of the Borough and Town of Weymouth & Melcombe Regis 1829;

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