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Watermills were a very important part of the
village economy, and a source of profit to the lord of the manor whose tenants
were obliged to have their corn ground at the manorial mill. To pay for this
service the miller kept a proportion of the corn brought to the mill to be
ground into flour. This toll-corn was sold to pay the miller and to make a
profit for the lord. There were 368 mills recorded in Somerset, producing an
income which varied from 35s at Bathwick to only 6d at Clatworthy. A number of
manors had no mill e.g. Brent, Dulverton, Wedmore and Glastonbury, and the
tenants had to use handmills or carry their corn to other mills. Many of the
mills recorded in Domesday Book continued to operate on the same site, though
they were rebuilt and improved at intervals, until the nineteenth century, and
a few still survive as interesting links with the remote past.
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