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The mills of Pocklington is the focus of this week's On the History Trail.
Pocklington was founded on a fast flowing stream fed from the Wolds and was ideally suited for the establishment of medieval water mills used for the grinding of corn, bones or cloth fulling.
The Domesday survey of 1086 shows that Pocklington has a church and a priest and two mills rendering five shillings.
Later manorial documents show at least three early mills with five by the eighteenth century. The earliest named references are in the archives of the Dean of York, which in the 17th century show that Clock Mill and White Mill were being leased by the Dean to the manorial lords and stewards.
The stream from Millington flows through the ancient settlement of Ousethorpe which has a fulling mill (designed to process woollen cloth) recorded in the township in 1241. The stream continues to hug the edge of the escarpment and Pocklington wood...