Winchester Mill on XP2

Ok, so the first photo obviously isn’t a mill! It’s King Alfred standing looking down on and up along the “Broadway”. It was decided in 1899 that a statue would be built to commemorate 1000 years since the death of Alfred. It was finished in 1901, and has been there ever since. He ruled from 849-899, the inscription reads: ‘Aelfred, To the Founder of the Kingdom and Nation’. Which is sort of true. Upon his death Edward the Elder (Alfred’s Son) became king, he was never able to quite unite the “Kingdom” either, so when his son, (Alfred’s Grandson) Athelstan became King it fell to him. He became the “First King of England”, eventually, but was crowned King of Mercia. Just as a quick and maybe interesting note, after Athelstan passed the throne to King Edgar he was the first to be crowned “King of All England”, in Bath Abbey 973. The service used for Edgar’s coronation was compiled by Dunstan, who was Archbishop of Canterbury at the time. The same service has been used at every coronation since, including Charles III. Well that was nearly a post by itself!

Back to the mill – I’ve walked past it many times, and never had the time to make a visit – this was that day! It’s a National Trust property, a little disappointing as the large space of the mill is empty. Inside there is nothing but a couple of large beams.

The very informative exhibit does convey that there has been a mill on this site for over 1000 years, certainly since Saxon times, but even then may well have been built on the foundations of a previous Roman mill. It is recorded in the 1086 Domesday survey, but bad harvests and the black death meant that by 1471 it was derelict.

In 1743 a new tennant rebuilt it and that is the building that stands today. It operated as working mill right up until the early 1900’s, it was then a laundry during the first world war, then spent nearly 100 years not milling. Finally in 2004 the National Trust had got every thing back up and running and gave a milling demonstration! However in 2013/14 the River Itchen reached it’s highest ever recorded level and much was underwater for weeks! Much was restored again but again in 2023, high water levels damaged the wheel again, now £90,000 is being raised to restore again! It is hoped eventually to be able to mill flour once again, at some point!

I was able to go under the main floor and see the damaged wheel (above) nothing moving of course, except the water. I visited on a mild rainy day, and wow, the force and the noise of the water was immense! Just the water, not moving anything, was rather like standing next to a jet engine! I manged a couple of photo’s.

On this mini break I raided my film stash for 400 speed film, and I certainly needed it here. This was my last roll and was Ilford’s XP2. All things considered I got good results. I understand that this film features some dyes that help produce the image. It feels to me like this is a slightly finer grain that plain HP5, although I’ve never tested that. I did have this roll processed in C41. I wonder if there is some clever chemistry going on rather like a pyro developer.

There is a small back garden here, rather like an island that helps to divide and channel the water through the mill. That too is nearing the end of a bit of restoration, I suspect due to the same flood levels.

Back outside one can see the water exiting the mill, with some force! All these images were made with the Leica M-4P and the Zeiss 35mm Biogon. As I’ve said before, a combination that I’m really enjoying using.