Metro mayor hails mill’s role as link to past
Mayor of the West of England Dan Norris has highlighted the history of brass manufacturing along the river Avon as a key part of our history in Bath.
Shamefully, many of the brass pots and kettles that were made in Bath and Bristol during the 18th and 19th centuries were sold in West Africa to buy human beings, who were then trafficked to the Americas as slaves.
Mr Norris visited Saltford Brass Mill last week and said: “It was truly fascinating to visit the mill. Our guide really knew his stuff and I found out so much about the history of our region and how it all links up.
“People know Bristol was at the centre of the slave trade but its impact reached out right across to Weston in central Bath.”
Indeed one brass mill was on the island in Weston where the First Group bus depot is now sited.
The Bristol Brass Company began opening mills along the River Avon very early in the 18th century to make pans and kettles known as “brass hollow-ware”.
“Brass and brass products were a key currency in this evil trade being seen as more valuable than gold to African slave traders,” said the metro mayor. “Local brass mills all along the Avon played a major part in this distasteful business.
“Our industrial heritage is sometimes shocking and it’s right we preserve it and tell the story of our ancestors,” he said. “Great museums like the Saltford mill tell an important story from which lessons can be learned. A fascinating place which everyone should visit.”
The grade Ii-listed mill is the responsibility of Bath and North East Somerset Council which is supported by the charitable Saltford Brass Mill Project.
The project prepares displays on the former Avon Valley brass industry and opens the mill to the public in the summer months.
In order to do this the project tends the gardens around the mill on the Shallows in Saltford, carries out routine maintenance and keeps the mill clean, which is no mean task.
The project also gives lectures to local history and interest groups.
Saltford Mill was in use as a brass mill from 1721 to 1925. The company was at its peak of activity around 1800, eventually ceasing operation in 1927.
The reason that the mill enjoys listed building status is that it is the last, almost complete, vestige of an industry that once comprised 13 mills in the Avon Valley, ranging from Baptist Mills to the west, Warmley Brass Mill to the north, Weston to the east and Woodborough Mill near Woollard to the south, with mills in Keynsham and Saltford at the heart of the tapestry of premises.
The brass industry was an important precursor to the Industrial Revolution and advances in metallurgy and the use of coal for industrial purposes that laid the foundations for the steam age.
Of course there is also the darker side to this story. The driver for brass production was the purchase of enslaved people in West Africa and the advancements in metallurgy led to the extensive use of fossil fuels and the start of global warming.
The Saltford Brass Mill is a tangible reminder of this activity in the Avon Valley in the 18th century.
Saltford Brass Mill will open on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month in 2022. More information is available at brassmill.com or email secretary@brassmill.com or call 07823 321768.