Ebley Mill, Stroud
of Stroud
There has been a mill at Ebley since at least 1393, when it was probably a watermill for grinding corn. The buildings originally stood on the north side of the canal.
After 1800, when the mill was acquired by the Clissold family, it was relocated to a new building on the south side of the canal.
The oldest of the surviving main buildings, Long Mill, was built in 1818-20 for the Clissold family (Stanley and Stephen Clissold).
1836 The Manufactory of John F. Marling.[1]
Marling expanded Ebley Mill and constructed a new mill pond to supply the five water wheels.
1840 S. S. Marling acquired the mill with his brother.
c.1840 The Greenaways Block, to the west of the main building, was built.
1843 T. and S. S. Marling.[2]
1859 After a fire in 1859, which destroyed the pedimented front range of the mill, a large new building was added in 1862/5, to the designs of the leading architect, G. F. Bodley for S S Marling. (Bodley is better known as a church architect, and had designed Selsley church for Marling a few years earlier.)
By 1862 Steam power had been installed
1866 Marling and Co
By 1870, the mill employed some 800 workers.
The firm was later called Marling and Evans
1886 Became a limited company.
WWII part of the building was converted to the spinning of hosiery yarn, and the remainder housed the carding and spinning processes for Marling & Evans' factory at Stanley Mill.
Post-WWII part of the complex was taken over by a printing firm.
1965 The south-west block of the mill was demolished.
1987-90 the Long Mill and Bodley's extensions were converted into offices for Stroud District Council by Niall Phillips Architects of Bristol. The cost was reputed to be £11 million, which caused a major outcry amongst the ratepayers, but the conversion secured the preservation one of the finest stone-built mills in the country.