In-Depth Report: Bucks Mills

Throughout the nineteenth century, Bucks Mills contained no more than thirty dwellings, the majority of which were on the Parkham side of the stream. This runs alongside the central street in the hamlet and formed the boundary between the two parent parishes. Only the mill and a block of cottages, now named John’s and William’s, can be shown to have existed before 1800. Originally known as ‘Buckish’, the settlement is still referred to by this name in some mid-nineteenth century documents. The mill, from which the hamlet first took its current name in the early 1800s, appears in the Woolfardisworthy Land Tax Returns for 1780, at which time it seems there was no accompanying village. Benjamin Donn’s map of North Devon, drawn in 1765, shows buildings at West Bucks and East Bucks but no settlement on the coast at Bucks Mills, merely a track from the inland hamlets to the sea. This suggests that the mill was less than fifteen years old in 1780. The mill’s siting can be explained by the position of the stream, from which it derived its power and its accessibility from the sea. Corn from the Walland Carey estate, to which the mill belonged, and from nearby Lundy Island, would have been brought in by boat and ground at Bucks’ mill. The four other dwellings on the Woolfardisworthy side of Bucks Mills are all included in the tithe schedule of 1838 but not in the Land Tax Return of 1831. This appears to be an accurate reflection of when they were built.

Although the Land Tax Return of 1830 suggests that there were no dwellings on the Parkham side of Bucks Mills at that time, this can be shown to be incorrect. It may be that the properties were too small to attract tax, or that the Goldsworthy estate had paid a lump sum in order to redeem the Land Tax on their property and thus individual occupiers for Bucks Mills are not shown in the returns. A Survey of the Manor of Goldsworthy, dated 1796, includes only a single block of cottages in Bucks Mills, Parkham, described as being ‘near Bucks’. These are believed to be a row of three cottages sited near the sea, opposite the mill. No evidence has been found to suggest that there were any other dwellings on the Parkham side of the stream at this time. Leases confirm that at least six of the remaining cottages on this side were ‘newly erected’ or ‘lately erected’ in 1815 and this coincides with the arrival in the village of two masons, John Metherell and Robert Davey. With the exception of King’s Cottage, which was built in 1845, the Parkham portion of the village had reached its full extent by the time of the 1840 tithe schedule.

Cottages in Bucks Mills were, with few exceptions, stone built with thatched roofs. The walls, constructed from rubble, are nearly two feet thick and would have been lime-washed using lime from the village kilns. Cob, a mixture of hardened clay, dung and straw, was also used in the construction of many of the smaller cottages. Using the censuses of 1891, 1901 and 1911, descriptions in the Valuation Office Field Books of 1910 and sale details of various dates, together with field archaeology, it has been possible to discover the size of all but five of the dwellings in Victorian Bucks Mills. The geography of the village means that it is virtually impossible to extend the cottages and it is likely that the early twentieth century sizes are an accurate reflection of their original dimensions. The majority of cottages consisted of a living room and ‘back kitchen’ downstairs and two rooms on the upper floor, one of which would have been open to the stairs and whilst being used as the children’s bedroom, also served as the landing. Two thirds of the dwellings had less than five rooms, two having only two. The four households that had more than five rooms were all on the Woolfardisworthy side of the village. Services were primitive throughout the nineteenth century. There was no piped water supply or sewage disposal system, electricity did not reach the majority of the village until the mid-twentieth century and there is still no gas. In 1841, more than half of the cottages contained at least five people and in some, overcrowding was intense. For example, Thomas and Mary Harris reared six children in the two rooms that constituted number twelve.

Apart from the erection of King’s Cottage and a block of three cottages, which appear to have been lost to the sea in the 1860s, the fluctuation in the number of dwellings during the Victorian period is accounted for by amalgamation and sub-division and not by new building or demolition. The geography of the village, which is set in a steep-sided valley, means that it was difficult for Bucks Mills to expand beyond its nineteenth century limits. As children left the family home they were often forced to move out of the hamlet, due to lack of available accommodation. The high degree of residential persistence found in the village may well have been higher still, had there been the opportunity to create more housing within the village.

The fact that, with very few exceptions, the cottages in Bucks Mills were constructed between 1812 and 1835 has implications when studying the population of the later nineteenth century. It means, for example, that many adults appearing in the 1841 census returns are migrants, albeit often only very short distance ones. It seems likely that the creation of the hamlet at this time was related to the need to increase agricultural yields; a result of population increase and the effects of the Napoleonic Wars. The cottages in Bucks Mills provided accommodation for additional estate workers. Bringing land of a more marginal nature under cultivation required the use of lime as a fertiliser and lime burning was undertaken at Bucks Mills.