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Ifield Water Mill is a 19th-century weatherboarded watermill in the Ifield neighbourhood of Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. Built on the site of an earlier, smaller flour mill, which itself replaced an iron forge—one of many in the Crawley area—it fell into disuse in the 1930s. The local council, which acquired the land for housing development in the 1970s, leased the mill to local enthusiasts, who restored it to working order. The mill and an associated house are listed buildings, and there is also a cottage (not listed) on the site. ==History of the site== The area around Ifield was originally thickly wooded, forming part of St Leonard's Forest. Small brooks and tributaries of the River Mole run through the soil, which is an area of Weald clay between the sandier soil to the south and a narrow outcrop of limestone further north. At least one mill had been established in the village by the 13th century, although this was further north. No records of its ownership survive, but tithe documents refer to it several times and it may have belonged to the Lord of the Manor.〔 An iron forge existed on the site by the late 16th century. The Lord of the Manor owned the section of Ifield Brook (a tributary of the Mole) which ran from the furnace at nearby Bewbush, to the southwest.〔 The brook was dammed in the 16th century to form a mill pond, which provided power for the forge. By 1606, "a house, barn, mill, mill pond and two crofts of land known as Ifield Mill and Ifield Mill Pond"〔Quoted in the deeds of the mill.〕 had been established.〔 The Middletons, a rich local family who owned many ironworks across Sussex, leased the mill and its associated buildings. They were also tenants of the Bewbush furnace.〔 The Sussex iron industry declined quickly in the mid-17th century. Bewbush furnace closed in 1642 because the area had been completely deforested and there was no more wood to use for fuel; the following year, as the English Civil War raged, Parliamentarians overran the area and destroyed all remnants of the industry. The site of Ifield forge was cleared, and a corn mill was built in its place.〔 (At the time, the generic name "mill" was used to describe forges, and their operators were called "millers" or "farmers". This makes it difficult to determine exactly when the change happened.)〔 It was definitely operating by 1660, when a local Quaker, William Garton, operated it. He was regularly imprisoned for his religious beliefs over the next 25 years, even though Ifield was a hotbed of Nonconformism (being the site of one of the first Quaker meeting houses in the world). The mill was a small-scale operation at first, but as the milling process became more efficient it was able to expand. It was rebuilt in 1683. The Middleton family owned the mill and its associated buildings outright by this time; another prosperous local businessman, Leonard Gale, bought it in 1715.〔 By 1759 it had passed out of his family and began a 50-year period in which various combinations of partners owned it. By this time it was the largest corn mill in the area; when Napoleon threatened to invade the United Kingdom, a survey was undertaken to determine the output of all mills, which found that Ifield Mill could supply 16 sacks of flour and 120 loaves of bread each day. Other local mills could manage no more than four sacks per day. Despite its efficient output, the mill fell into disuse in the 1810s after London-based businessman Abraham Goldsmid bought it in 1809. It lay unused for eight years until Thomas Durrant, a miller from nearby Merstham, bought it for £1,200 in 1817. Durrant was the first owner who also acted as miller, and under his ownership the mill was completely rebuilt.〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ifield Water Mill」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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