MillGate
Info Provided by Millgate Conservation Society

The Millgate area – consternation and conservation

 

These days, a saunter around the Millgate Conservation Area, with its pretty river frontage and charming buildings, is a relaxed, Sunday afternoon sort of experience. But ‘twasn’t always so.

 

 

In 400AD, you might have been shoved out of the way by a cohort of marching soldiers - Millgate follows the route of Fosse Way, once one of England’s busiest Roman roads.

 

In the mid-1600s you’d have found a population at war with itself.

 

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In the 18th and 19th centuries, you’d have been attacked by the Industrial Revolution. The area, especially Millgate itself and the parallel Navigation canal, was a bedlam of manufacturing and commerce. Your senses would have been assaulted by the ugliness, cacophony and stench of grinding mills and factories, breweries and malting houses, fellmongers and a tannery. And people. Shops and street traders, draught horses and barges, pubs and preachers all contributed to the general uproar.

 

And in the 21st century you’ll be confronted by their ghosts – if you know how and where to look.

 

Where Castlegate meets Millgate - known as Hill End - you’ll find a row of buildings that once included a plumber’s, a basket maker’s and a butcher’s premises. Two of them (60 and 62) have been immaculately restored as period cottages by a local, gentleman builder. Plunge down Top Lock Passage (mind the dog!) and you’ll find yourself beside the Navigation canal, with its picturesque lock, lock keeper’s cottages and unrivalled, panoramic views of Newark Castle and Trent Bridge. If it’s sunny, the Swan & Salmon serves lunch and chilled light ale on its riverside balcony…

 

But if you do have to push on, cross over the lock, turn left, and you’ll discover more photo opportunities. Mill Bridge has spectacular views. Parnham’s Island - once the site of a water-powered flour mill - is now a haven for anglers. Further along, there’s a multi-arched bridge over a weir, where the Navigation cascades into the Trent.
 

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Or stay on the south bank, and follow the Riverside Walk, with its procession of yards and wharves, warehouses, mills and industrial buildings. The character of the original seed mill is still there - now housing a yoga studio - but nowadays you’ll also find chic town houses, swish apartments, and no fewer than three architects’ practices. Not to mention the Navigation pub with its industrial-era interior and waterside views. Mind your head, but also look at that floor.

 

More ghosts of Millgate past await on the main street. Dating back to the 1500s, numbers 1 and 3 are allegedly the oldest in the street. Nos 5-9 were probably built in the 1780s. What sort of people lived in them? In 1871, for example, the row was occupied by a laundress, a shoemaker, a wood turner, a provisions dealer and a coal yard labourer. Nowadays, there’s a planning consultant, a retired craftsman, an ex-marketing executive and an art director. In living memory, No 9 was a pump shop and then a crêperie (presumably with the front door worked back then).

 

The small, but elegant houses opposite were designed in the 1980s, by architect David Pickles OBE – proving that it is possible, with enough sensibility, to create modern housing that blends seamlessly with the character of the area, whilst adding to its aesthetic appeal. Best of all, David still lives on the street he helped create.

 

Next door to these homes are fine Georgian residences, some with blanked out windows. Not the infamous Window Tax; merely Georgian architects following their obsession with uniformity and visual balance.

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But talking of tax. There was once a Brick Tax; so the builders of No 33 included extra-long bricks to reduce the number required. Tax evasion or avoidance?

 

A wealthy milling family – the Bilsons – owned the Georgian pile at No 23, whilst 35 and 37 were once Victorian shops; their fronts still evident.

 

On the corner of Pelham Street stands the last ghost of Newark’s famed malting industry; now a boxing club. Pause here, listen carefully and you’ll hear the gurgling of St Catherine’s well, gushing along beneath your feet. Walk on and you’ll have quaint cottages on one hand and, on the other, the Millgate House Hotel – at one time a Waifs and Strays Society home for destitute girls.

 

And so the parade continues, with quiet passages leading to hidden yards, with names like Taylor’s and Cottam’s. Beside Navigation Yard, with its quaint houses, history lies underfoot; here are cobble ladders – originally designed to help overburdened draught horses find enough traction to overcome the gradient between Weighbridge Wharf and Millgate. These days Weighbridge Wharf is (weirdly) an otter park.

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Tannery Wharf, meanwhile, is an imposing piece of period industrial chic, now residential. And amidst the historic names there’s a waterfront feature renamed after its current owner, just a few years ago. See if you can find Healy’s Wharf.

 

Back on the main street; No 55 is a timber-framed house dating back to the 1500s. But here’s a mystery; dendrochronology testing has revealed…55’s timbers conform to no known dating matrix! Squires Yard is a modern iteration of an earlier building, which saw life as a Salvation Army barracks, wool and flax halls, a rope walk and a garage. The old Methodist chapel is now offices, whilst the Watermill pub (first licensed in 1794 and still serving in 2021) stands four square, awaiting the next phase in its colourful history.

 

But for a contemporary glimpse of times gone by, take in the scene through the Georgian archway between 69 and 71. Here is a working yard reflecting all the character of a bygone age. Step through the arch to buy logs or smokeless from the yard’s owner, and you’ll probably be given a ton of knowledge about local history – and miniature horses – into the bargain. You may even find one of his small horses grazing on the field outside the Old Hall (a presbytery reputedly built on the site of a medieval hermitage). Or, indeed, on the grassy verges beside Millgate Field - an ever-diminishing wildlife area adjacent to the new Marina Quays development.

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But before the marina are historic buildings; some grand, some modest. (Hoity toity has always rubbed shoulders with hoi polloi in Millgate.) Lenton Terrace, for example, is a stand of quality Victorian townhouses, flanking a ginnel that leads to no less than eight period cottages with vaulted cellars that were rented out to the adjacent Trent Brewery. Further along, the painter and Mayor W.H. Cubley lived at Nos 80-82.

 

The White House, meanwhile, is probably Millgate’s most imposing pile – boasting 17th century origins, Georgian and Edwardian refinements and a history of illustrious residents; ranging from mill owners to a Liberal MP, a steel wire manufacturer and a wealthy local land owner.

 

You’re now standing in what some locals - somewhat self-consciously - refer to as Lower Millgate. It’s a hopeful attempt to distinguish it from the more rough-and-ready ‘Town End’ and, in truth, you will find some of the Millgate area’s most appealing buildings here. Crow View, for example, is arguably one of the most desirable, and handsome, houses in Newark. Built around 1830, it stands on the corner of King Street – a site which marks the edge of the fortifications that defended Newark from the besieging Parliamentarians (1645-6) during the English Civil War. Just round the corner, in King Street itself, there’s a neat contrast to the opulence of Crow View; the National School. This simple little building was founded in 1840 to provide education for around 200 poor children. In the 20th century it became the studio of prominent artist Robert Kiddey.

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Returning to the theme of the English Civil War. Walk past the Georgian townhouses to your left on Millgate (they were built on the site of a Saxon cremation cemetery), cross the Farndon Road at the Spring House pub (the name was inspired by nearby St Catherine’s Well) and you’ll come to a delightful park. The Queen’s Sconce is the site of the earthwork fort built to defend Newark, and command the strategically important river and Great North Road, during the conflict’s sieges. The space was also used as bleaching field by Scales Linen Mill on Farndon Road, and as a prisoner of war camp during World War Two. Today the Sconce is both an historic monument and a park offering a playground, café and a leafy walk along the River Devon (pronounced Deevon locally, of course).

 

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And so ends this insight into Millgate. But the final – and most fitting – summation of the area comes from the late Doctor David Marcombe, historian, author and former local resident;

 

“Pevsner commented on Millgate’s ‘villagey atmosphere’ and it is still true to say that this fashionable area of Newark has a very firm character of its own. This rests not only on its distinctive architectural heritage, but also on the unusual range of people who live there, including students; manual workers; and professionals. But, surprisingly, this is as it always has been.”

 

Article written by MCS, with special thanks to Ann Marcombe for her invaluable contribution. Reference: ‘Millgate: a Guided Walk’ by David and Ann Marcombe.

For information about MCS’s conservation, membership and social activities, please email millgatecs@gmail.com