River Stort - Burnt Mill

Thames Tributary River Stort.
The Stort flows westwards
Fiddlers Brook flows south east towards the Stort
TL 44632 11206




Area to the north of Harlow and around the Stort Navigation.  This is an area of the New Town designated for employment to which industries were relocated from central areas


Post to the north Gilston Park
Post to the east Harlow
Post to the west Eastwick
Post to the west Harlow

Allende Avenue
This was previously Fifth Avenue and is now part of the A414

Burnt Mill
Industrial and warehousing area.

Burnt Mill Lane
Burnt Mill = the area here was a settlement and an industrial village in the 19th.
Burnt Mill. This was originally Netteswell Mill, built by Waltham abbey dates from the 12th.  Known as Burnt Mill since the 16th it became derelict and was demolished in the 19th.
Gilston Mill. On the bank upriver of Burnt Mill.  This was a cloth and fulling mill later converted to corn
Burnt Mill. Factory built on the site of the Burnt Mill. Two-storey, brick-built with a slate roof, this late 19th foundry was built for the marine engineers John Kirkcaldy Ltd. from Limehouse who occupied it until 1930s when they lost Admiralty order. They also built associated housing.  Some buildings were demolished and the rest taken for use as a grocery warehouse and then a projector factory. Now Harlow Outdoors, Centre for Outdoor Learning.
Harlow Town Station.  Built in 1842 for the Great Eastern Railway as Burnt Mill station.  The current building is listed grade II, built in 1959-60 as the main station for Harlow New Town by John Bicknell and Paul Hamilton, for British Railways Eastern Region.  The waiting room is situated on the bridge and it has a glass-fronted booking hall with a large entrance canopy linked to the over bridge.  Towers rise above it housing lift machinery for handing small goods such as parcels.
Terlings Park.  This was the site of a manor house there since the 16th and latterly Terling’s Park House with a boathouse and 2 lodges. It was in outbuildings here that Harlow New Town was planned. It was taken over by the Post Office in 1968 and subsequently the the main house and outbuildings were demolished. It was taken over by Merke, Sharp and Dohme in 1981 and they used it as a research and development centre focussing on neuroscience. They added an incinerator, a robotics laboratory and offices. The site closed in 2006 and to be used for housing.
Burnt Mill Lock. This was built as a turf sided lock in 1766/9 and rebuilt in brick/concrete in 1913.
Lock-house. Built in 1799 with outhouses and sheds. The original elevation faced the lock with two plaques – one with ‘GD’ for George Duckett plus the red hand and the date 1799. The other, LC for Lee Conservancy rebuilt 1913. It was replaced by a modern bungalow in the 1960’s.
Sculpture by Graeme Mitcheson "Short Stort Thoughts" put alongside the lock in 2007. It uses a series of globe shapes to show the link that the Stort Navigation has provided between Harlow and the rest of the world.
Moorhen. One of the Hungry Horse chain since 2010. Previously a boathouse it was rebuilt as a pub in the 1990s. The boathouse dated from the 1950s and was used for boat storage with an adjacent swimming pool
Moorhen Marina. This lake was previously used for model boats and is accessed via a moveable lift bridge.
Parndon Moat Marsh, Part of the Harlow Marsh Nature Reserve. It is between the Stort and the railway. It is the site of a 12th moated manor house, Little Pardon Hall. This was rebuilt on an adjacent site in the 17th and then demolished for the railway.
Burnt Mill Sewage Works. To the east of the moat

Eastwick Road
The western part of the road is part of the A414 straightened in 1960
Eastwick Lodge Farm. Owned by the Carter Family who have been there since 1933 when it was mixed and dairy. The village of Eastwick was bypassed in the 1960s and the village shop closed. Thus the farm began to sell produce.  The new road also meant it was impractable to take cows across it twice a day so the farm concentrated on shop sales. Farm building now also house a variety of businesses.
Dusty Miller. Built in 1846 this was the Baker’s Arms, changed to the Railway Inn in the 1970s when it was purchased by the Brewers.  In the 1950s it was renamed Dusty Miller which is apparently a fishing fly.

Edinburgh  Way
Area of the road between here and the station was a field called Millers Wells – and full of water. Later site of Spring Street and housing.
Tunmannmeade – was an area of strip holdings
Longman Green’s Offices. Publishing house founded by Thomas Longman in the early 18th. Their Paternoster Row offices were destroyed in 1940 bombing and they eventually moved to Harlow on the site of Millers Wells. They are now part of the US firm Pearson Longman.
Toby Carvery

Spring Street
Housing was built here in the 19th and a Baptist chapel. Since demolished.
Bus depot and station entrance.

Sources
Crosby. Essex Gazeteer
British History online. Harlow
Dusty Miller. Web site
Essex County Council. Web site
Essex Journal
Harlow Council. Web site
Moorhen. Web site
Pearson Longman. Web site

Comments

Paul Orton said…
Thanks for this page, I've learned a lot.

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