Albert Mill, Keynsham
.jpg)
in Clements Road, Keynsham, Somerset
Former grist mill on the River Chew, converted to flats in 1992.
The first mill on this site was probably built in about 1734 by the Bristol Brass Co and was referred to as the “New Brass Mills” in a 1774 lease. The famous Swedish Industrial Spy, Rienhold Angerstein, described it as having four hammers and an annealing furnace.
In 1788 William Overend acquired the site and moved his cotton spinning business here from the Red Mill in Bristol, opposite Hotwells House on the river Avon. This business ceased in about 1810 and the mill was then used as a grist mill and later for grinding limestone and ochre before conversion to a logwood mill.
A large waterwheel is visible outside, and another is enclosed within. It is possible that cotton was processed on the site in the 1780s. The mill was used latterly to process logwood for textile dye[1].
The mill had been surveyed in 1974, and an interesting report is available online[2]. This stated that the waterwheels were already in situ when the mill was taken over by the Thomas family for logwood grinding in the 1870s. The external waterwheel, 18 ft diameter and 9 ft 11 in wide, was thought to be of unique construction. It drove a log grinding (chipping) mill, still in place at the time of the survey.
The mill was visited by George Watkins in 1941, and he photographed a steam engine at the mill, used for driving a single pair of edge runner grinding stones when water was short. The c.1860 single cylinder horizontal engine was made by Cox and Wilson. A 3 ft dia pinion of the crankshaft drove an 8 ft dia wheel directly above it.[3]