PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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Laira Corn Mill is a curiosity. Believed to have been a tide-mill, it was shown on King Henry VIII's defence map dated c1539 and on another map of c1549 but not on a map of around 1591. The only known references to it are in the Bastard's of Kitley papers in the Plymouth & West Devon Record Office. Laira Mill and Laira Marsh were the subject of a "Release" dated November 3rd 1676 and then, on March 25th 1698, four acres of land commonly known as Lary mills, plus a piece of waste ground where a corn mill formerly stood, plus Lary mill pool (alias Lary marsh), all within the borough of Plymouth, were leased for three lives by Charles, Duke of Bolton, to Mr Edmund Pollexfen of Plymouth, who had to repair the sea banks. The rental was £10 per annum. These papers suggest, therefore, that the Mill ceased to function sometime around 1676. There is a reference elsewhere in papers held by the Record Office to the marsh being known as the Duke of Bolton's Marsh. Given that Laira creek, where the railway locomotive sheds and playing fields are now, was Extra-Parochial land, not within the borough, the mill must have been situated very close to, but below, the later Lipson Mill
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