Great Tosson : Water Mills

Great Tosson water mill is frequently mentioned in deeds and surveys relating to the barony of Hepple. It is mentioned c. 1290 (NCH XV (1940), 396 and in the Inquisition Post Mortem of Sir Robert Ogle in 1436/7.

The reference to multure - the fee paid for grinding corn - at the mill in the 1290 reference demonstrates it was a corn mill. It is unclear whether there was also a fulling mill at the site at any point in the medieval period. One was certainly mentioned at Newtown as early as 1622. The 1632 map shows the mill located to the north east of the village, on the site of the later Tosson Mill, which sits beside a westerly loop of the Seal Burn/Roughting Burn (fully within Great Tosson township). This may represent the corn mill mentioned in medieval sources.

In addition, two buildings are shown on either side of the burn, a little lower down its course, right on the boundary with Newtown township. One of these may represent the fulling mill mentioned in Newtown township in 1622.

Picture : Mill Leet At Tosson