Fole Mill and Dairy, Staffordshire

**BereniceUK** · 7th February 2010, 15:12

Fole is a scattered small village around the A522 road between Cheadle and Uttoxeter, south-east of Stoke-on-Trent.

"This mill was built in 1771 for Henry Copestake who, along with his brother Thomas, ran a jewellery business from Uttoxeter. They were well known goldsmiths throughout the Midlands and the water mill was Henry's pet idea for speeding up the process of lapidary, the polishing of gemstones, which was normally a long job to do by hand.
This was before electricity was introduced. Water mills were utilised in various trades on the River Tean from Lower Tean down to the Cotton Mill Farm prior to joining the River Dove. There were six mills working the same water as it passed through."

The dairy closed in March 2009 after 60 years of milk production and is currently up for sale. http://www.uttoxeteradvertiser.co.uk....asp?ID=371256

This is the old mill section of the works; how much of this was used when the dairy was in operation I don't know. I didn't take too many photos as I'd walked past a security man (he was sat in the gatehouse by what must have been the main entrance to the old mill. It must get quite spooky there at night because the mill entrance is off the main road and very few cars or people will ever pass by) and assumed he'd be watching me on CCTV.

Some of the newer structures

**yamahapaul** · 8th February 2010, 15:31

Nice one

Originally Posted by BereniceUK

Water mills were utilised in various trades on the River Tean from Lower Tean down to the Cotton Mill Farm prior to joining the River Dove. There were six mills working the same water as it passed through."

is there any remains of any of these?

**BereniceUK** · 8th February 2010, 17:30

I found this excellent resource for info on UK water and wind mills.

http://www.ukmills.com/pages/searchdb.asp?type=county

There aren't too many watermills left standing in Staffordshire; I haven't checked all the listed locations to see which are by the River Tean

**Jimbo** · 6th December 2010, 11:49

Hi
Thanks for putting up the lovely photos of Fole Dairy. I've seen the exact wording on the origins of Fole Mill on two different sites both later than yours so I'm assuming yours is the original (see below). Can you tell me where you found the details please? Always looking for verification as I'm putting together a piece on the Vernon family at Fole Mill to share eventually with others online. It's wonderful that you took the photo of the stone plaque commemorating and confirming that there was a fire at the mill in 1894. There is some confusion at least in my mind about a fire at Vernons Mill. Elsewhere it is recorded that "In the early hours of Monday June 5 1894 a flour mill at Uttoxeter belonging to Messrs. William Vernon & Sons, flour millers of Uttoxeter and Liverpool, took fire and was totally destroyed." this it seems appeared in a periodical 'The Miller of July 2 1894. I took it to mean Vernons Mill at Uttoxeter but there is no doubt in my mind now after seeing your photo that it is referring to Fole Mill. I would like to find out more though about Vernons Mill in Uttoxeter. One of your photos showed part of the old mill and I wonder if there is any trace of the old water mill there in the River Tean.

Historic mill should have listed status

Thanks again for posting this thread and hopeful that there will be some replies.

**yamahapaul** · 6th December 2010, 11:59

I've had to remove the link you put up as it doesn't work on here and takes you to a lovely site as a re-direct

**Jimbo** · 6th December 2010, 12:28

Sorry one of the links in my last posting didn't take you to the correct site. Try googling UK Urban Exploration Forum and search for Fole Dairy or posts put up by dongledaniel. He has put up some excellent interior photos of the old dairy.

**BereniceUK** · 6th December 2010, 19:58

This was the source of the quote but it's the same as the one you posted

Historic mill should have listed status

Where the writer got his info from I don't know but he should be fairly easy to track down, I would think