Comments on: At The House Mill https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/05/29/at-the-house-mill/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Sat, 13 Sep 2025 05:08:43 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3 By: Glenn Unstead https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/05/29/at-the-house-mill/#comment-1798514 Sat, 13 Sep 2025 05:08:43 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=134484#comment-1798514 On Friday 6 August 1965 I was an apprentice Electrical Engineer and requested to accompany a team of Engineers with the London Electricity Board at what was known as the Bromley by Bow Sun Flower Mill. I was fascinated by the fact that this was a tidal Mill which had been formed on and Island by striving thousands of wooden poles into the ground to form a channel where the tidal surge would drive the machinery that would grind the grain. It was a bright sunny day. Our roll that day was to transport an 11kva three phase transformer to the site for installation to the substation at the base of the Mill on a Low loader lorry. This involved the use of an Iron Fairy telescopic crane to lift the transformer from the lorry onto the road and place it on steel roll bars. I remember thinking This process was so archaic and gave thought to those slaves in the hot dessert in Egypt that built the pyramids. Steel levers were used manually, by the engineers and labourers, to manoeuvre the transformer some 60 feet from the lorry into the sub station. That was the plan! However, the crane did not arrive and the lorry driver has to wait in the vehicle until the following day – Saturday 7th August. Thankfully on Friday evening I left the site and travelled back to my parents home in Wanstead. That evening we heard the tragic news of the explosion which killed 4 people including our lorry driver who was crushed by the tons of falling brick rubble. We understood the cause of the explosion was the dust from the grain was ignited by some electrical arcing perhaps in a defective lamp. That was always the suspicion, however due to the extensive damage it was always unclear where the trigger point was located. Truly a sad loss of not just our colleague but some of the flower mill workers too. Wonderful images of this historic site. Thank you for sharing.

]]> By: Glenn Unstead https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/05/29/at-the-house-mill/#comment-1798513 Sat, 13 Sep 2025 04:56:56 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=134484#comment-1798513 On Friday 6 August 1965 I was an apprentice Electrical Engineer and requested to accompany a team of Engineers with the London Electricity Board at what was known as the Bromley by Bow Sun Flower Mill. I was fascinated by the fact that this was a tidal Mill which had been formed on and Island by striving thousands of wooden poles into the ground to form a channel where the tidal surge would drive the machinery that would grind the grain. It was a bright sunny day. Our roll that day was to transport an 11kva three phase transformer to the site for installation to the substation at the base of the Mill on a Low loader lorry. This involved the use of an Iron Fairy telescopic crane to lift the transformer from the lorry onto the road and place it on steel roll bars. I remember thinking This process was so archaic and gave thought to those slaves in the hot dessert in Egypt that built the pyramids. Steel levers were used manually, by the engineers and labourers, to manoeuvre the transformer some 60 feet from the lorry into the sub station. That was the plan! However, the crane did not arrive and the lorry driver has to wait in the vehicle until the following day – Saturday 7th August. Thankfully on Friday evening I left the site and travelled back to my parents home in Wanstead. That evening we heard the tragic news of the explosion which killed 4 people including our lorry driver who was crushed by the tons of falling brick rubble. We understood the cause of the explosion was the dust from the grain was ignited by some electrical arcing perhaps in a defective lamp. That was always the suspicion, however due to the extensive damage it was always unclear where the trigger point was located. Truly a sad loss of not just our colleague but some of the flower mill workers too.

]]> By: jules charman https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/05/29/at-the-house-mill/#comment-1574559 Mon, 20 May 2024 07:12:40 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=134484#comment-1574559 These pictures are fab.
The Adams Family, my 3 x Great-Grandparents, ran these mills in the Mid-1850s.
Its lovely to see them restored back to the Grander days.
Thank You all.

]]> By: Ken Stewart https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/05/29/at-the-house-mill/#comment-1373650 Sun, 11 Apr 2021 08:06:04 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=134484#comment-1373650 Lived near there from 1952-1980 approx but always loved walking around there longing to explore

]]> By: Marnie https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/05/29/at-the-house-mill/#comment-1316974 Sat, 05 Oct 2019 15:37:33 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=134484#comment-1316974 What a huge, beautiful mill built by another of the unsung Hugenot families who contributed so much to improved Western living–exquisite fabrics and designs which are still treasured, for another.

George Washington, America’s great surveyor and land investor, had a sizable mill constructed in a barely accessible backwater of SW Pennsylvania. The structure was in a sad state of dereliction 20 years ago when a group of local enthusiasts set about to restore it.

Each summer they organize fun/educational events with costumed interpreters, period food offerings, reenactments of both Revolutionary and Civil War events, etc. The people of Perryopolis, PA, will welcome you! And a three-hour drive later you are visiting President Washington’s beautifully restored and refurbished plantation, Mount Vernon, outside ofWashington, DC.

Nowadays, the Amish work team raise barns for the ‘English.’ I wonder if any Hugenot men helped build the Perryopolis Mill of George Washington.

Thank you, GA, for sharing these amazing vignettes of times past.

]]> By: Jill Wilson https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/05/29/at-the-house-mill/#comment-1316930 Sat, 05 Oct 2019 07:32:58 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=134484#comment-1316930 Another set of brilliantly composed photographs (they could easily be abstract paintings!) and an intriguing place. So glad it has been saved…

]]> By: Rev Molly Langridge https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/05/29/at-the-house-mill/#comment-1174270 Sun, 15 Oct 2017 12:15:06 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=134484#comment-1174270 Thank you for the beautiful pictures>I can imagine my great Grandfathers William Jellico working there.

]]> By: Ann Rayner https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/05/29/at-the-house-mill/#comment-1108692 Sun, 25 Sep 2016 09:29:27 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=134484#comment-1108692 I lived in Newmill House Bromley -By-Bow right on the Norghern Approach Road to the Blackwell Tunnel. In August 1965 the Sun Mill exploded blowing out the glass windows in the flat showering my cot with glass, my mother will never forget that day she thought the Germans were bombing London again, I have no recollection of this event as I was only 8 months old , would be nice to visit a refurbished Mill. Seems like it’s been a worthwhile project.

]]> By: Beverley https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/05/29/at-the-house-mill/#comment-972684 Tue, 16 Jun 2015 14:47:10 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=134484#comment-972684 House Mill is next to the film studios, but quite separate from them, and run by an independent charitable trust. The cluster of heritage buildings (House Mill, Clock Mill, Custom House) form a large part of the Conservation area, and each is a building listed with English Heritage. Even the cobbles and setts making up Three Mill Lane are listed. Very lucky to have so much remaining here, and we have been delighted to see so many of Gentle Author’s readers here over the last few weeks. Please keep coming! Thank you again for featuring House Mill in such a special way

]]> By: Susan Hoyle https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/05/29/at-the-house-mill/#comment-964343 Mon, 01 Jun 2015 06:09:44 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=134484#comment-964343 We used to walk and cycle around here years ago: how good to see it restored so well! The photographs are, as usual, very fine. Thank you.

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