Broxbourne Mill is located at the Old Mill and Meadows Site Lee Valley Park

Lee Valley Park

Lee Valley Regional Park is a long linear park, much of it green spaces, running through the northeast of London, Essex and Hertfordshire from the River Thames to Ware in Hertfordshire, England through areas such as Hackney, Tottenham, Enfield, Stratford, Tower Hamlets, Walthamstow, Cheshunt,...

, Broxbourne

Broxbourne

Broxbourne is a commuter town in the Broxbourne borough of Hertfordshire in the East of England with a population of 13,298 in 2001.It is located 17.1 miles north north-east of Charing Cross in London and about a mile north of Wormley and south of Hoddesdon...

, Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

.

History

A mill stood here for 900 hundred years before being destroyed by fire on October 1, 1949. It is the only mill in this area to be mentioned in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 1086 . The first known owners were the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem

Knights Hospitaller

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...

 who held the mill to 1544 at the time of the Reformation

English Reformation

The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....

. The mill ceased the milling of grain in 1891 and was used for a variety of uses till its destruction .

Recent history

The remnants of the mill which were renovated by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority

Lee Valley Regional Park Authority

Lee Valley Regional Park Authority is a statutory body that is responsible for managing and developing the long, Lee Valley Regional Park. The park was established by Parliament in 1967. The headquarters of the authority are based at Myddleton House, Bulls Cross in the London Borough of Enfield,...

  (LVRPA) in 1977 included c16 brickwork floor and window frames of the c19 two-storey miller's house. The original water wheel

Water wheel

A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of free-flowing or falling water into useful forms of power. A water wheel consists of a large wooden or metal wheel, with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving surface...

 has been restored to include replacement paddles made from re-cycled plastic which have a longer life, weigh less therefore placing less stress on the original wheel. Additional work included a new side sluice

Sluice

A sluice is a water channel that is controlled at its head by a gate . For example, a millrace is a sluice that channels water toward a water mill...

 which when raised allow excess water to pass through.

Today

The mill and its surroundings which are open to the public are known as the Old Mill and Meadows site. The main bulk of which is wet meadows where water voles can be found. During the summer months dragonflies and damselflies

Damselfly

Damselflies are insects in the order Odonata. Damselflies are similar to dragonflies, but the adults can be distinguished by the fact that the wings of most damselflies are held along, and parallel to, the body when at rest...

 are seen hovering over the reedbeds. The small piece of woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

 provides habitat for birds and cover for small mammals such as the fox

Fox

Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...

 and the muntjac deer. Other activities here are angling

Angling

Angling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" . The hook is usually attached to a fishing line and the line is often attached to a fishing rod. Fishing rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. The hook itself...

 which is permitted in the millpool and the millstream . Cycle hire is available in season and a model railway club is open to the public at certain times.

How to get there

Rail

• Broxbourne railway station
  Broxbourne railway station
  Broxbourne railway station, opened in 1840, serves Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, England. It is on the West Anglia Main Line, and train services are provided by National Express East Anglia, who also manage the station.-History:...
  
   is close by

Buses

• 310,311,C3

By road

• A10 to A1170 to B194 Towards Broxbourne Station 2nd Right Churchfields 1st Left Mill Lane.

By foot and cycle

• Lea Valley Walk
  Lea Valley Walk
  The Lea Valley Walk is a long-distance path located between Leagrave, the source of the River Lea near Luton, and the Thames, at Limehouse Basin, Limehouse, east London. From its source much of the walk is rural. At Hertford the path follows the towpath of the River Lee Navigation, and it becomes...