Eling Tide Mill

On the edge of the New Forest and cheek by jowl to Southampton’s container port, the Eling Tide Mill in the background, is a rare example of a working mill still producing flour using solely tidal power.

Once abandoned and derelict it has been restored by New Forest District Council and Totton and Eling Town Council, with the aid of a Heritage lottery grant of £1.3 million.

It harnesses power of the tide to grind wheat into wholemeal flour.

Historians do not actually know when the Mill was first built, but the earliest surviving reference to it is in the Domesday Book in 1086 AD but experts say i is possible that it may even go back to Roman times (c.200-400 AD), althought any evidence of this will be underneath the Mill and its dam.

Local records suggest that the Mill was always owned by the Lord of the Manor of Eling, and originally this was the King of England as Eling was a royal manor. In the early 1200s, however, the manor and Mill were sold off by King John.

They went through various hands until 1382 AD, when the title - and with it the Mill - was purchased by the Bishop of Winchester and given to a school he was founding (along with many other properties) to be a source of income. Winchester College, the famous public school, owned the Mill from 1382 to 1975 AD, though they did not run it directly, but rather leased on long leases.

The Mill has been rebuilt many times over the centuries, the last time being in the 1770s when it (and the dam) were completely rebuilt after a bad series of storms and floods. The current building is some 220 years old, although it has been on the same site and always a tidal powered flour mill for at least 920 years.


The milling machinery was last replaced in 1892 AD, yet basically, it still has the same parts working the same way as it always did.

Eling Tide Mill Trust was set up in 1975 to oversee the final phase of restoration, and to administer the Mill as a working mill/museum. The mill is now run by Totton and Eling Town Council who took over in January 2009.