Events | Committee | Links |

> GB0CWM - Cossington Water Mill

G2AA - G3LRS - G6XRS - G5UM

GB0CWM - Cossington Water Mill

On this page:

• The Cossington Water Mill restaurant - a short history.

• What did LRS members do in a water mill?

Members of Leicester Radio Society, in association with the Denby Dale Radio society and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), broadcasted from a water mill in May 2000!

This annual event, coordinated by the Denby Dale Radio society, saw many of the UK water mills and windmills home to amateur radio stations during the weekend of 13th and 14th May 2000.

LRS was at the Cossington Water Mill which is about 3 miles north of Leicester near Rothley.

No longer being driven by water it serves north Leicester now as a restaurant.

As part of the special privileges to radio amateurs in England, Arthur, G0TNI, had been issued with the special call sign GB0CWM.

Allocated by the Radio Society of Great Britain, LRS can used the unique GB prefix to publicize this special event.

If you miss out on a special event broadcast then the we are on-air Monday nights from LRS headquarters.

Special QSLs, were available.

QSL cards by QSL Online

More

Denby Dale Radio Society National Windmills and Watermills

Cossington

Population: 758 (from Registrar General's mid-1988 estimates)

Standing in level country between the Rivers Soar and Wreake, Cossington retains its pleasant village street of old cottages and the old Rectory which has a broad 15th century window. The church, largely of the 13th and 14th centuries, has several features of note including an ornate carved sedilia ⁽¹⁾, 14th century heraldic tiles and notable stained glass.

Passage taken from "Borough of Charnwood Official Guide"

(1) Sedilia: a type of seat, usually found in niches of three, for the officiating clergy, on the south side of the Chancel. (The area separated from the main church by a latticework screen.)

A Short History of Cossington Mill

The earliest specific mention of the Mill occurs in a document of 1248 by which Geoffrey Despenser granted it to William de Maisham for a term of 24 years. It is thought, however, that Cossington Mill is one of three
mills mentioned in the Barrow upon Soar records of 1086. Certainly there are many references from the beginning of the 14th century to the present time with such names as John German (1412), Thomas Babington
(1549), Richard Hopkins (1657), John Ratcliffe (1743), Peter Hancock (1827) and Henry Gardener (1908).

The Mill was first used for corn milling but by 1657 and possibly earlier both corn and paper milling were carried on under the same roof. This continued until around 1827 when it appears to have reverted to a corn
mill, and as such was in use until 1928. The mill machinery was then taken out and the Mill gradually fell into a state of disrepair and dilapidation until 1938 when the property was purchased for conversion
into tea rooms.

In 1965 the property changed hands and by 1967 it had been restored to its present condition and was opened as a restaurant.

It was an immediate success and now enjoys the reputation of being one of the most popular venues for eating out in the Midlands.

The waters of the rivers Wreake and Soar meet at a point approximately 100 yards south of the Mill. They divide immediately to accommodate a weir and navigable lock. The water from the high level was led by a
'race' to the mill wheel, which was of the undershot type and housed in its separate outbuilding between the Mill and the Mill House. The water then flowed into the millpond and hence to the river at the lowest level.

The timber framed structure of the present Mill dates back to the early 17th century and the Mill House is early 19th.

[ Home ]