30 KINGSBRIDGE 



construction of some of these bridges, foot passengers were 

 dependent on stepping-stones, while horses and carriages 

 waded the brooks. Some years ago, when an alteration 

 was made in the course of one of these streams, an 

 engagement was entered into, that the owners of the land 

 through which the new channel was made, should be 

 allowed, by way of compensation, to have their corn 

 ground at the mill, gratis, " for ever." 



There are records of transactions relating to houses in 

 Mill Street, in the first half of the fourteenth century; 

 one such is dated 1337. The mill was there at that time, 

 for the north boundary of the said property is " the mill- 

 stream of the Abbot of Buckfast." In a feoffee deed of 

 1601, it is called Mill Street, but the name is doubtless 

 older than that. 



In 1798, Messrs. Walter Prideaux and John Roope erected 

 extensive machinery here, and converted the mills into a 

 woollen manufactory, where for a number of years the 

 serge or long-ell trade was carried on, to supply the East 

 India Company with goods for India. This branch of the 

 trade gradually lessened, and when Messrs. Walter W. and 

 George Prideaux took the business, they commenced 

 making blankets and other woollen goods for Newfoundland, 

 and for some years this was carried on to a considerable 

 extent. This has, however, been long discontinued, and 

 the mills were, in 1845, turned again to their original 

 use, that of grinding corn. There was, at the beginning 

 of this century, another manufactory erected by Mr. John 

 Lavers, for making serges and other woollen goods, but 

 that has also been long given up. It was situated in 

 Duncombe Street. 



Tokens, principally in connection with the woollen trade, 

 were at one time struck in this district. 



