K.H. Rogers, in Wiltshire And Somerset Woollen Mills, published by the Pasold Research Fund Ltd., in 1976, noted:
In 1797, Sir William Pierce Ashe a’Court let to William Marven Everett of Heytesbury, clothier, a piece of waste ground called Gooseacre at Greenland with a watercourse running through it, with liberty to use it for driving a mill, and the use of an adjoining ditch leading water to the watercourse as often as the meadows did not need watering. No fine was paid for the lease, but it included a covenant to make a mill pond and hatches. A covenant to build a clothing mill was, however, deleted before the lease was signed, but that this was intended is shown by a letter written the previous year by William Smith, the pioneer geologist:
On surveying the back Drain or Stream which runs thro’ the Lands of Sir William a’Court at the west end of the Town of Heytesbury, I find the Levels to be 4 feet 4 inches from the corner of Norton Meads to the Temporary Bay near Mr. Everett’s Cottages.
This Watercourse in its present state does not appear to be of any service whatever to any of the Mills in the neighbourhood nor to the adjoining Lands of Sir William a’Court except as a fence between the arable land and watermeads and as a back drain for the water in excessive Floods which I am informed happen but seldom and at a Season of the year when no damage can be done by overflowing the Meadows; but by building a capacious rolling Bay or Waste Weir the passage of the Floods will meet with no more obstruction than at present, therefore this objection as well as any possible injury to the water meadows may be entirely done away, the Ground on that side being from 2 to 3 feet above the highest surface of the water in the proposed millpond.
But I understand that the Fall of 4 feet 4 inches which is all that can be gained between the Ford into Norton Meads and the Temporary Bay will be scarcely adequate to the purpose of a Mill. I would therefore recommend as there is a considerable fall about 40 to 50 yards below to deepen that part of of the River which is very shallow by cleansing it of the gravel which now obstructs the passage of the water from above.
If this was done, which I think the gravel for the use of the roads would pay the expense of, near an acre of land which is now covered with sedges and little better than a Quicksand might be taken into the adjoining meadows from different parts of the River and converted into good ground, and several acres on the South side which now appear to lay in a wet state might be considerably improved by the extra drainage which this lowering of the water in the River will certainly effect, and in addition to these improvements, which I would recommend if no Mill is to be built, shall be enabled to add 1 foot 5 inches and 7 tenths which I apprehend is sufficient for the purpose of the intended Mill without any encroachment on the Parish of Norton or injury to the Watermeads but on the contrary would prove to be a considerable improvement to the latter.
Wm. Smith. Surveyor.
Cottage Crescent, near Bath.
Oct. 31st 1796.
In December 1796 Everett advertised for a ‘person who is a complete master of the management of scribbling and carding engines, and is also able to superintend the slobbing and spinning’.
The lease was renewed in 1803 including ‘buildings now erecting thereon’, and there was a covenant to erect a good and substantial dye-house and all necessary buildings for carrying on the business of washing and dyeing wool. In 1807 Everett enquired the cost of, and probably bought, a 12 h.p. steam-engine from Boulton and Watt. A further renewal in 1817 referred to dwelling house converted into a factory called White’s, and a survey of 1825 shows that this was distinct from another factory with a dye-house, no doubt the one built on Gooseacre.
By 1831, the factory was occupied by Messrs Francis and Everett, who became bankrupt in that year. The stock was put up for auction and the machinery and factory offered by private contract or lease. There were then thirteen cutters, eleven scribbling and carding engines, four gigs, six blue-vats, and two presses. A further sale in 1832 included eight billies and between twenty and thirty jennies, and also a 12 h.p. steam-engine. It was then said that the factory was being converted to other purposes. W.M. Everett died in that year, and his daughter surrendered his leasehold for £1,000. No more is known of the factory, which was pulled down by 1886.
WRO, 101/91 and 101/137;
DG, 16.6.1831, 11.10.1832;
SJ, 26.12.1796.