Estate History

Records show that the Lower Mill estate and villages surrounding it were first recorded in 680 AD (Somerford being a Saxon term meaning a place on the river passable only in summer). Records were improved from 1260 when the Braden Brook was renamed the Swill Brook, which remains one of the three rivers to pass through the Estate and is home to our colony of Otters.

Once the site of an Anglo-Romano settlement, the Estate's landscape has remained virtually unchanged until 200 years ago when it became a diary and arable farm, hence the construction of the group of stone and brick farm buildings such as Howells Barn (built 1830) and the Grade II Listed working watermill (circa 1930), which remains one of only two surviving working mills on the entire Thames.

picture of the cottages

The Estate was farmed until the 1950's when it was sold for its rich mineral content. For the last 30 years it has matured into an area of immense ecological significance with established water and landscape, 7 lakes (see picture above), three rivers, a nature reserve of European significance and one of the most important lakes in the country for over wintering wildfowl.

Lower Mill Estate is privately owned by one family and is being carefully developed to ensure that the majority of it remains free from development and managed for its conservation values forever.