Reputation The Role of Clothiers Cloth Preparation Decline Ebley Mill Lodgemore Mill

Cloth has been made at Lodgemore, Stroud, from as early as the 1400s. Today, WSP Textiles continues to make a highly specialised range of cloth products including tennis balls, snooker and pool tables and casino tables.  These high quality products are used in professional tennis and snooker championships such as Wimbledon and World Snooker tournaments.

A mill at Lodgemore is recorded as belonging to the Spillman family in the 1400s. In 1608, two fulling mills are recorded in a dispute over water rights. The upper mill was known as Merrets Mill worked by Thomas Merret, a tucker (or fuller) and then by Richard Merret and owned by Richard Payne. The lower mill known as Nether Latemores Mill, was owned by Richard Browning.

SM Lodgemore from the Upper Meadows
GRO Lodgemore Mill July 2003
SM Lodgemore Mill - weaving

 

By 1749, Merrets and Nether Latemore mills were referred to as Lodgemore Mill. 1749, Richard Cooke mortgaged the mill which included stocks with fulling mills with adjacent press house and dyehouse. The mill passes to his son Richard Cooke. In 1794, Richard, Henry and John Cooke were in possession of the mill which was occupied by John Jones. The Cookes got into financial difficulties and the mill passed to William Whitehead.

  • 1801, 1807, 1811 the mill suffered from a series of fires
  • 1814 a new mill was built having both steam and water power. William Whitehead leased the mill to Nathaniel Samuel Marling
  • 1827 Whitehead went bankrupt and William Playne and Robert Jeffries Brown bought the mill.  Marling remained as tenant
  • 1839 William Hunt of Dyehouse Mill became tenant of Lodgemore Mill
  • 1846 mill sold to William Hunt
  • 1865 sold with Frome Hall Mill to Josiah Greathead Strachan
  • 1871 the mill was completely destroyed by fire
  • 1875 work began on rebuilding mill to plans of James Ferrabee
  • 1890 Josiah Greathead Strachan sold out to Strachan & Co.
  • 1920 Strachan & Co. formed an association with Hunt & Winterbotham of Cam and William Playne of Longfords Mill
  • 1973 the companies became part of the large combine of Illingworth-Morris, and Lodgemore Mill was worked in conjunction with Cam Mill and Longfords until it's closure in 1990
  • July 1990 company taken over by Milliken WSP.
  • Now WSP Textiles
From January 2016, this website is managed by Stroud Local History Society
SM Lodgemore Mill before the fire of 1871b