Tuck Mill, Clehonger
Herefordshire

The Cage Brook, on which Tuck Mill stands, runs north to join the River Wye in the Breinton Gorge at (SO) 34577 24935. The land on the site is currently in use as rough pasture and as a trackway.

The area lies just within the eastern limit of the Devensian glaciation as suggested by the British Geological Society survey (Brandon, 1989, p35).  It was this glaciation, and its retreat, which formed this landscape.

The original course of the Wye in this area was along the much wider valley which is now the course of the Yazor/Eign Brook, at some distance to the north.  During the later glaciation the Wye is presumed to have formed a new course, originally flowing on the ice.  As this melted, the river cut down through the Raglan Mudstone formations of the Old Red Sandstone to form the narrow Breinton Gorge.

The Cage Brook, incised back from the deepening Wye at this time, cutting through the Raglan formations south of the river.  Both valleys, that of the Wye and that of the Cage, have subsequently been subjected to alluviation.

The Cage runs along the north-western side of its valley just above Tuck Mill.  The mill-race was constructed along the south-eastern side of this narrow valley.

The Cage Brook forms the boundary between the parishes of Clehonger to the east and Eaton Bishop to the west.

Tuck Mill, in Clehonger parish, is the last of four water-mills which in the 19^th century stood on the Cage Brook along this Boundary.  The other three were New Mill (Eaton Bishop – 34402 23754), Cagebrook Mill (Clehonger – 34463 23785) and Ruckhall Mill (Eaton Bishop – 34521 23893).

Extract from OS 1^st edition 1:2500 plan, 1887

Immediately to the west of Tuck Mill (and therefore in Eaton Bishop parish) is Eaton Camp, an Iron Age promontory fort on the high ground remaining above the incised confluence of the Wye and the Cage Brook.

The name Tuck Mill should logically imply a fulling or cloth mill from OE - tucien – to full cloth.  However, the only records show Tuck Mill as a corn mill.

The mill had probably been in operation for some time when the census of 1841 was taken on Sunday 6^th June that year.  Only two households in Clehonger parish are recorded as having resident millers.  One of these is specified as Cagebrook Mill where Samuel Peal was the miller.  The other miller in the parish is John Dandy, and although his mill is not named, it seems likely that it was Tuck Mill.

Dandy may not have been the proprietor of the mill, but if he had been, the mill had changed hands by 10^th November that year when the tithe apportionment was made, for in that document Thomas Wheeler is recorded as the owner and occupier of the mill.

The excavation trench revealed two structures that were possibly stone walls.

Feature A seemed to be running in a north/west by south/east direction while feature B seemed to be running in an east-west direction.  No cuts were seen in the sections of feature A while feature B showed that it at least pre-dated the burnt layer for the makeup of the trackway.

The lack of any finds within the features made them difficult to date and the narrow trench made interpretation difficult.

Reporting

Unpublished Report - Tuck Mill, Clehonger, Herefordshire; a report on an archaeological watching brief - Huw Sherlock, Robert Williams and P J Pikes, 2002.

A copy of this report is held in the reference section of Hereford City Library

This report is available at the Archaeological Data Service site

To view or download the report click here

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