| Wye | |
| Subdivision Type1: | Country |
| Subdivision Name1: | England |
| Subdivision Type3: | Counties |
| Subdivision Name3: | Buckinghamshire |
| Subdivision Type4: | Districts / Boroughs |
| Subdivision Type5: | Towns |
| Subdivision Name5: | High Wycombe, Bourne End |
| Length: | 17km (11miles) |
| Discharge1 Location: | Hedsor |
| Discharge1 Min: | 0.25m3/s25 December 1973 |
| Discharge1 Avg: | 1m3/s |
| Discharge1 Max: | 4.4m3/s25 September 1981 |
| Discharge2 Location: | High Wycombe |
| Discharge2 Avg: | 0.31m3/s |
| Source1 Location: | West Wycombe, Chiltern Hills |
| Source1 Coordinates: | 51.6478°N -0.8125°W |
| Source1 Elevation: | 94m |
| Mouth: | River Thames |
| Mouth Location: | Bourne End |
| Mouth Coordinates: | 51.5703°N -0.7111°W |
| Mouth Elevation: | 26m |
The River Wye is a river in Buckinghamshire, England. It takes its name from the town of High Wycombe through which it flows, rather than the town being named after the river, as is more commonly the case.[1]
Around 10.5miles in length,[2] the Wye rises close to West Wycombe village in the Chiltern Hills and flows through High Wycombe, where it is fed from other tributataries such as Hughenden Stream,[3] before emptying into the River Thames at Bourne End, on the reach above Cookham Lock. In particularly wet years, the source can temporarily change and effectively extend the river by another mile, due to a chalk spring rising above the ground in a field further up the same valley. The River Wye now runs in underground culverts through the centre of High Wycombe.[4] Pann Mill watermill, at the eastern end of Wycombe, is the last remaining watermill on the river.[5]
There is a long history of water-mills being operated in the Wye Valley which drops about in its 10.5miles course. The Domesday Book records eighteen of them in the nine miles between West Wycombe and the Thames.[6] By the seventeenth century there were fulling mills as well as corn mills. A Court of Survey in 1627 lists six mills running upstream from the boundary with Wooburn Parish: the paper mill, Tredway, Loudwater, Bassetsbury, Chalfonts (Rye) and Bridge. There were by this time at least two paper mills: Glory in Wooburn Green and Hedge in Loudwater. By 1636 another paper mill had been established in the parish of West Wycombe and by 1656 another at Marsh, below Wycombe. At this time paper was made from rags and by the end of the eighteenth century more than 150 men were recorded as papermakers in the valley. In 1816 there were 32 paper mills (some of which also milled corn), four which only milled corn and one which was also a saw mill. This was when paper making reached its peak in the valley. However, the introduction of the Fourdrinier machine at the nearby Frogmore Paper Mill, which produced a continuous roll of paper, led to widespread unemployment and many families went to the cotton mills of Lancashire. In 1830 there were riots when machine wreckers broke the machines at Ash, Marsh Green and Loudwater. Twenty men were punished by penal transportation to Tasmania.[7]
Papermaking continued at the Soho and Glory mills till the end of the twentieth century, though the water-mills gave way to steam in the mid-nineteenth century. The Soho mill in Wooburn was the prime supplier of high-grade colour paper till its demise in 1984.[8]
Shown in order from highest to lowest. Note that Marsh Green to Treadway are on an extra cut parallel to Pan to Loudwater Mills. The number is that given by registration in the eighteenth century.
| Name | Recorded | Last record | No | Type | OS Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Wycombe Mill | 1311 | 1900~ | sawmill (18thC) | |||
| Upper, Francis or Little Mill | 1681 | 1903 | 423 | paper | ||
| Lower, Mill End or Fryer's Mill | 1505 | 1915 | 422 | Corn & paper | ||
| Lord, Frog or Ball Mill | 1717 | 1883 | 421 | Corn & paper | ||
| Ash or Lane's Mill (Broughton/Wynkle's) (2) | 1596 | 1895 | 419, 420 | paper | ||
| Temple Mill (Gosenham) | 1227 | 1895 | corn | |||
| Bridge Mill | 1185 | 1932 | corn | |||
| Pann Mill | 1185 | 1967 | corn | |||
| Rye Mill (Bradshaw's, Sale's, Bowler's, New) | 1346 | 1931 | 411 | paper | ||
| Bassetbury Mill | 1411 | 1931 | corn | |||
| Bowden Mill (2) | 1235 | 1939 | 415, 416 | Corn & paper | ||
| Wycombe Marsh Mill (Lower Marsh) | 1133 | 1993 | 414 | paper | ||
| King's Mill (New) | 1725 | 1939 | 417 | paper | ||
| Loudwater Mill (2) | 1483 | 1939 | 430, 431 | paper | ||
| Snakely or Ford's Mill | 1767 | 1970 | 428 | paper | ||
| Hedge Mill | 1235 | 1970 | 427 | Corn & paper | ||
| Marsh Green or Upper Marsh Mill | 1750 | 1816 | 412 | Corn & paper | ||
| Beech Mill | 1740 | 1900 | 413 | paper | ||
| Treadway Mill (Overshot's) | 1682 | 1854 | 418 | Corn & paper | ||
| Clapton Mill | 1492 | 1922 | 429, 509 | Corn, metal & paper | ||
| Glory Mill (2) | 1235 | 2000 | 426 | Corn & paper | ||
| Lower Glory Mill | 1631 | 1907 | 425 | Corn & paper | ||
| Soho Mill | 1705 | 1988 | 424 | Corn & paper | ||
| Prince's Mill (Egham Green) (3) | 1730 | 1865 | 287, 288, 289 | Corn & paper | ||
| Gunpowder Mill (Jackson's) | 1705 | 1980 | 286 | Corn & paper | ||
| Hedsor Mill | 1492 | 1980 | 285 | Corn & paper | ||
| Lower Bourne End Mill | 1719 | 1895 | 284 | Corn & paper |