Date of photograhp: 1998

The following extract is taken from "Henley Heritage" by Jan Baldwin (1994):

Hambleden Mill was first recorded in the Domesday Book. It was one of many ancient mills along the banks of the Thames, built to use water power to drive the wheel for grinding corn and making flour. The ownership of Hambleden Mill passed to the Abbot of Keynsham in 1235; but a second mill was acquired in 1338, disappearing later without a trace.

During the Middle Ages many millers tended to be rogues, frequently allowing themselves more than the customary one tenth of the produce. Those whose livelihoods were in Thameside mills were also at constant warfare with the fishermen and the bargemen, each using the river for a different purpose. By the eighteenth century England possessed twenty thousand watermills, most of them for corn. As recently as 1955, Hambleden Mill, probably rebuilt in the sixteenth century, was still grinding corn and producing flour, using a water-turbine in place of the old water-wheel.

Today the while weatherboarded mill is a landmark, and has been converted into private flats. A footpath crosses the river by the weir, making it accessible for all to see how picturesque this historic building really is.