_To the Editor._
Sir,--It may not be deemed an intrusion to inform your readers, that
when Avon Mill was devoted to the grinding of corn it was very centrally
situated for the convenience of the poor gleaners. This mill, then kept
by a family of the name of Tanner, (the sons were renowned swimmers,)
had also much business with the neighbouring farmers and maltsters. At
the time, dame Tanner, one of the best-hearted women then living, had a
custom of her own, (perhaps to discharge the dictates of a good
conscience for the double toll taken by the millers.) She made after the
harvest-season a cake, somewhat after the manner of the Jews’ passover
cakes, given to their Gentile friends, which she called the “Gleaning
cake,” and gave it to every poor person that brought gleaned corn to be
ground at the mill. A few years after her death the mill was purchased
(I think a chancery suit was pending) for a clothing manufactory, (one
pair of stones only being kept,) which it still remains. When the
shearing machines were here first introduced to cut and dress cloth by
water, detachments of troops were nightly stationed in the lanes and
mill to prevent large bodies of the shearmen, then out of employ, from
setting fire to the premises. At subsequent periods much business has
been done here in the manufacture of superfine broadcloth, but owing to
the fluctuation of trade Avon Mill has not generally done half the work
of its water power.
A neighbouring mill, once also a great corn mill, at Christian Malford,
but which is now a spacious edifice, has shared nearly the same fate and
devotedness. The water-wheels being partly undershot on this beautiful
river, the water in autumn is often insufficient to the demand; but when
after heavy rains the floods are out, the meadows present a sheet of
blue expanse truly picturesque, and the bridges, by the depth and
rapidity of the current near the mills, are nearly impassable. Many
peasants returning home, and farmers riding from market, have by their
adventure missed their way and been drowned.
A “pretty considerable number” of ghost stories are floating in the
memories of the aged cottagers, of persons appearing after death on the
Avon and its banks in this part of the country.