Belvedere Mill in Chalford

Helena heard about a talk being held tonight in Chalford village church and tipped me off a few days ago.  The subject was the the history of the Chalford and Golden Valley mills' and it was the launch of the new local history group. I arrived on time to hear Professor Jenny Tann who lives in the village and is an academic expert on the Gloucestershire wool and textile industry.

I enjoyed it very much and learnt a lot of fresh detail which I will have to follow up. She had some very rare images of the old buildings including photos of rare oil paintings, maps, diagrams and recent photographs of mills and the related houses belonging to the 'clothiers', the owners of the businesses.

Once it was finished I quickly left in order to catch the light for my camera. The church was only about fifty yards from the largest site where Bliss Mills was the dominant industrial centre in the upper Frome valley. Some of the buildings remain and I explored the still open yard where Chalford Building Supplies now have their warehouse, yard and store.

But I went downstream about one hundred yards to where the road to Minchinhampton crosses the river just above this mill pond feeding Belvedere mill. I have blipped it before as it is a fine looking building, very well maintained and fully occupied, although now there are offices rather than wool related processes. I took this picture at 9pm with a three quarter moon just hanging above the trees lining the south side of the valley. A buzzard took off from a tree in that woodland and flew to the  north side climbing steadily all the time.