Skip to main content

12th October 1863 – Sale of Badsey Silk Mill

For four weeks from 18th September 1863, The Coventry Herald ran the following notice:

1863 Badsey Silk Mill saleBADSEY, WORCESTERSHIRE
Freehold Silk Mill, Messuages, Orchards and Gardens

To be sold by auction by Messrs Tredwell & Son at the Northwick Arms Hotel, Evesham, on Monday the 12th day of October 1863 at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, in the following or such other Lots as shall be declared at the time of sale and subject to conditions:

  • Lot 1 – All that substantial building known as Badsey Silk Mill with the dwelling house, cottage, stable and other outbuildings, two closes of pasture land or orchards, yard and garden, mill pond and aits, water wheel, flood gates and water power to the said Mill adjoining and belonging, situate in the village of Badsey in the county of Worcester.
    • Badsey Silk Mill substantially and handsomely built with brick and contains four floors, each 76 feet 8 inches in length and 27 feet 10 inches in breadth.  The heights of the rooms are:  First Floor, 10 feet 7 inches; Second and Third Floors, 9 feet 3 inches; and Fourth Floor, 7 feet 9 inches or thereabouts, and all the floors are well lighted.  The Mill also contains a washhouse, drying room and making-up room, with other conveniences.
    • The two closes of pasture land, well planted with fruit trees are estimated to contain about 2 acres and are surrounded by the large mill pond and the brook.
    • The dwelling house and cottage adjoin the mill and the whole of the buildings, with the stable, are within an enclosed yard.  A small productive garden adjoins the yard and lies against Lot 2.
  • Lot 2 – All that garden or orchard, well planted with fruit trees, adjoining Lot 1 and now in the occupation of Mr Wormington.  This valuable piece of land is bounded on one side by the gardens of the Rev T H Hunt and on the other side by a public road.

After the sale of the above property:

  • Messrs Tredwell & Son are instructed to offer for sale by auction a quantity of valuable machinery now in Badsey Mill, comprising two metal spinning mills with 238 spindles each, made by Ritson of Manchester; two spinning mills with wood fitting; four throwing mills with two sets of ten reels each; two short Swift engines, three long Canton Swift engines with 40 swifts each, one ditto incomplete, four short Swift engines with 90 swifts each, doubling frames, trams, shaft bobbins, wood patterns of the driving wheels, spare wheels, boxes, etc, etc, of which printed catalogues may be had before or at the sale.

The village of Badsey is situate two miles from Evesham which has a first-class station on the Great Western Railway between Worcester and Oxford.

Further particulars may be had of the auctioneers or of Messrs New, Prance & Garrard, Solicitors, Evesham.

* * * * *

The sellers were Eliza Thorp and her brother, Frank Thorp, whose grandfather, John Thorp, had bought the old corn mill in 1818 and converted it into a silk mill.  The purchaser was William Parker who converted the silk mill into residential accommodation.