Thames Tributary River Mole - Downside

Thames Tributary River Mole
The Mole now turns north



Area  of mills on the Mole as part of the upmarket area of Cobham, Surrey


Post to the north Cobham Tilt
Post to the west Chilbrook
Post to the east Stoke D'Abernon
Post to the south Downside Bookham Road

Cobham Park Road
Downside Farm. On the site of the manor house of the Manor of Down. May have the remains of a moat on site. Also known as Downe Place or Downe House. In 1806 it was bought by Harvey Christian Coombe who actually lived at Painshill. He and his son dominated Cobham in the 19th. The house is late 18th red brick on a rendered plinth. Listed Grade II.
Cobham Lodge. Built 1803 for Col Joseph Hardy and designed by J.B.Papworth. Later the home of Caroline Molesworth who kept a record of all the local natural history.
Downside Mill. One of the three mills listed in Domesday. It was a medieval corn which was a paper mill at least by 1687 owned by a William Berrey and John Meers and which burnt down in 1733 when it was owned by a Richard Hinton. In 1770 it was bought by Alexander Raby, who was one of a Wealden iron family. He built two water powered machine shops, an iron foundry, a copper foundry and other buildings in the 1779s. In 1810 he moved the business to Llanelli. In 1814 his works at Downside was dismantled and it became a flock mill owned by Thomas Mellor. A wheel was installed in the late 19th to generate electricity for Cobham Park House when Charles Coombe, who owned the estate, bought it in 1866 and turned it into a saw mill and workshops for the estate - Later a turbine was installed to generate power. There is much slag lying around the area
Tinman's Row Cottages. Built by Raby for his workers 1804.

Down
Down was the name of a medieval manor which seems to have been based within Cobham Park on the high ground. Dun or Dune is a word meaning a settlement on a low hill and usually one which pre-dates the Saxons.

Downside
St.Michael's Chapel. Church of England.
Water pump, 1858 erected by Harvey Coombe. Cast iron with a little acorn on top.

Sources
Taylor. Cobham
Stidder. Watermills of Surrey
Industrial Archaeology of Elmbridge
Penguin Book of Surrey

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