Most of us cross Pannels Bridge on the Southminster Road without a second thought. The name is the last trace of a mill that once ground the town’s flour.

Two mills for one small town

Around 1800 Burnham had two mills, and between them they ground the corn and meal the town lived on.

The Station Road mill stood by Mill Cottage. Around 1800 it was worked by Joseph Newman. Before that it had been worked by Matthew Cooch. Cooch is one of Burnham’s oldest names: the family was already well established here by 1670. A James Newman also had a field and a brick kiln off Green Lanes.

The Mill Road mill passed through several hands. John Tunbridge worked it, then his children, then John Elliott by 1800 and William Taylor by 1818.

So who was Pannel?

By about 1850 the Mill Road mill was known as Pannels Mill, after the Pannel family, who were living at Burnham Hall at the time.

The mill is long gone, but the name carried on in Pannels Bridge.

What happened to them?

The Station Road mill was wrecked and pulled down around 1915–16.

Why the mills mattered

Around 1800 farming in Burnham was doing better than it ever had. Britain was at war with France and would be until Waterloo. The country, the Navy and the armies overseas all needed feeding, and so did every horse that pulled a cart or plough.

You can see it in the values set for tax. The Station Road mill doubled between 1794 and 1800, from £5 to £10 a year. So did the King’s Arms on the High Street (£7 to £14) and the Star (£5 to £10).

Caraway, coriander and teasels

Burnham farmers didn’t only grow wheat, barley and oats. For much of the century they also grew caraway (the seed in seed cake), coriander (used to flavour gin) and teasels, whose spiky heads were sold to cloth makers to raise the nap on cloth. The dry Dengie climate was good for ripening seed, and seed went up to London by boat.

Can you place them?

The book lists farms and places that have all but vanished: Brickwall Farm, Southward Farm, Littlewick, Twizzlefoot, Cobbins and Romans Farm. There were fields called Hunger Hill, Pear Tree Marsh and Horse Marsh, and a Cats Wood.

Do you know where any of them were? Tell us in Discuss. The old families will know things no book does.