Cogglesford Mill, River Slea, Sleaford, Lincolnshire
Cogglesford Mill, with house and outbuildings, is mainly of 18th and 19th century construction. There is, however, older stonework in the north wall of the mill showing the roof line of a single-storey building. In early documents the mill at Cogglesford appears as Sheriff's Mill. A 'shire reeve' (Sheriff) was an Anglo-Saxon official responsible for the administration of a royal estate so the name may indicate the presence of a mill here as early as the Anglo-Saxon period. The River Slea was made navigable from the River Witham, which it joins, up to Sleaford in the 1790's & it was here at Cogglesford that the first of seven locks was inserted and the river widened on the Sleaford side of the mill to create the 'pond' in front of the mill where barges could turn.
