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May 29, 2018

30/05/2018: The Sun Flour Mills Bromley by Bow

by Mildred Cookson, The Mills Archive, UK
 
Mildred Cookson

The Sun Flour Mills have been of interest to me since the early days of the Mills Archive when we were given the collection of Guy Cornwell.

This included the calligraphic certificate given to his grandfather, William, on his retirement in 1926, expressing appreciation for his work for the company since its foundation in 1887. The story of company's foundation, written by William, who started as manager in 1887 and ended as Managing Director, can be read in our archive catalogue (search for CORN-08).
  


The full story of the original owners, the Brown family, has been published by the Mills Archive in our Research Publication series. This impressive series of books is financed by our Research and Education Fund, a Fund that we hope will grow in the future so that we can produce so much more on our milling heritage. We are very grateful to Perendale for helping to get the Fund started; there are more details about the Funds activities and potential, HERE.

This article concentrates on the Sun Flour Mills at Bromley by Bow, established after a devastating fire at the recently built Sun Flour Mills on Sun Street, Waltham Abbey. The Bromley by Bow mills were described in detail in The Miller of December 3, 1894 and February 4, 1895. Situated on the River Lea, the mills were directly connected to the River Thames, one of the world’s greatest commercial highways. While the Lea flowed by one side of the walls, the other side was served by another waterway, locally known as the Limehouse New Cut.

The mill was a substantial brick building. Originally a rice mill dating from 1865, by 1895 it was well adapted for the purpose of flour manufacture. In the illustration from the River Lea side the receiving ship elevator occupies the foreground, while in the rear the massive tower supported a 7,640-gallon tank for the Grinnell sprinkler system, which was fitted throughout the mill. The silo house was on the left and the mill on the right with its flour warehouse and wheat-cleaning department. The whole range of buildings was divided into four distinct sections, each separated by fireproof walls and iron doors and galleries.

The tops of the partitioning walls dividing the sections can be clearly seen in the view from the New Cut or land side, where the finished products were loaded into the carts for onwards transport. In this view the mill proper, with the boiler and engine house, lay at the extreme left of the buildings with the second wall on the left dividing the mill from the flour warehouse.


Read the full article, HERE.
 

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