"Mill on the Floss" to go under the hammer

[dutchman]

Historic landmark which inspired classic novel is to be auctioned



The historic Warwickshire mill which was said to have been the inspiration for George Eliot’s classic novel The Mill On The Floss is to go under the hammer later this month.

Part of Great Alne Mill will be auctioned off in lots, including the four-storey former flour mill and mill race, a fourth floor studio, and 7.5 acres of river meadow, with frontage to the River Alne, and stable building/workshop.

First recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086, the original Alne Mill, near Alcester, was listed as being worth five shillings and was located in the site of the current building on the Milneway or Millway, now known as Mill Lane.

The present mill, part of which is being offered for auction, remained working until 1983 and was part converted to residential accommodation in 1989.

It has been suggested that Nuneaton novelist George Eliot, who based the fictitious town of Middlemarch around the city of Coventry, drew inspiration for her 1860 novel The Mill on the Floss from the social background and relationships surrounding Great Alne Mill, which at the time was owned and run by the Spencer family and was known as Spencer’s Mill.

Now agents John Earle & Son LLP will oversee the sell-off at a property auction at Henley Golf Club on Tuesday September 23.

A spokesman said: “The four-storey flour mill sits within the Grade II listed buildings and remains in the same condition as it was when the mill ceased working in 1983, with grinding machinery in situ.

“With superb views over the mill pond, this aspect is the only remaining part of the historic mill building that remains undeveloped and, subject to planning consent, would yield unusual character accommodation.”

It is being sold with a guide price of over £50,000, while the artists’ studio is expected to fetch over £15,000.