Dernford Mill (RGL2024)

Dernford (Durnford) Mill House

History of Dernford Mill

See also Wikipedia entry on Dernford Fen, an SSSI.

Fanny Wale, in her book on Shelford Parva, tells the story of James Brand. He lived with Sarah Jennings in one of the cottages behind the mill. They had two sons who lived to manhood, and nine daughters, seven of whom died young from typhoid fever; his final catastrophe was losing his arm in the machinery whih groud th corn. When he walked into his cottage without an arm his wife cried out, “Oh, what will become of me and the children”, and Brand said to a friend, “That hurt me more than anything.” A subscription was raised which provided the man with a very good cork arm, but he either could not, or would not, use it; the only work therefore that he could do was leaf-sweeping.