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The first record of the fulling mill is a document dated 1614 which shows Richard Dicke ofTurleigh buying the mill from Frances, daughter of Sir FrancisWalsingham. By the following year Richard had purchased most of the village. The mill was leased out to a number of tenants, including the Stratton family from 1700 until 1759,after which George Dicke appears to have paid the land tax until his death, when Henry Fisher inherited it briefly and rented it to Mr Perkins. Finally, it was advertised for sale in the Bath Chronicle in 1796 and bought by John Newton, who rebuilt it as a factory.
By 1816 it was employing 200 people and, with the stone quarries and brewery,would have been a major employer in the area. It was later bought by the Bradford firm of Saunders,Fanner & Company who went bankrupt in 1842.
The print of the Mill dated 1854(left frame)shows the building roofless after a disastrous fire the previous year. Its fortunes improved when a local timber merchant, Giles Holbrow, began rubber manufacture there. Ten years later his son let the factory and plant to Messrs. Browne & Margetson.
By 1889 their business was prospering and was renamed the Avon Rubber Company, as can be seen on the early map(below). They moved shortly afterwards to Melksham, where the company continues to prosper today. The following year another fire devastated the mill and timber yard and was to be reinstated by the Holbrows for their timber business until it was finally gutted by fire in 1939.
Today the building is owned by software company, Profund Systems.