The Lee Family of Coddington Mill
The Lee family have been reccorded at Coddington Mill on Balderton Lane between 1832 and at least 1961.
During that period the mill has been run by four generations of Lees
William Lee Snr
William Lee Jnr, then Mrs Olive Lee
Edward Lee
Samuel Lee
Between 1832 and 1944, the mill has been powered by wind, wind and 10 horsepower engine, wind and steam, wind and diesel oil. The mill is now a private house.
The Earliest Lees
Lee marriages are recorded in Coddington I – in 1785 that of Samuel Becket to Martha Lee and 1835 a William Lee to Ann Smalley – we don’t know if these are is related to the family who are recorded as millers in 1832.
1841 Census night records a Lee family all born in Notts – they are William Lee, Miller aged 40, Monica Lee, aged 45 and children William Lee jnr aged 15, John Lee aged 13, Caroline Lee aged 11 and Mary Lee aged 9. Trade directories record William Lee as miller in 1832, 1844, 1848 and 1850. In 1848 John Lee is listed as a cottager.
In 1856 Isaac Hurt married Mary Lee and William Lee married Olive Young; laterin 1868 a John Thomas Lee married Emma Harvey at Coddington Church.
William Lee Jnr.
By 1861 a younger William Lee, born in Farndon, was heading a household: William was a miller aged 34, his wife Olive aged 27, and young family Edward aged 3, John aged 2, Sarah aged 11months. They had a miller’s apprentice John Foster, aged 18 from Bleasby. William and Olive’s children were baptised at the Wesleyan Chapel – William in 1858, John in 1859, Sarah in 1860, Ann in 1862, another William in 1863, Francis in 1867 and Samuel in 1869. (Samuel was to die young – aged 20 in 1889 and be buried in Coddington churchyard.)AWilliam Lee was a Trustee of Coddington Chapel School when it opened it 1858.
In 1862 William Lee installed a steam engine of 12 horsepower to his windmill. He aquired a little land, because he is recorded as miller and farmer from 1869, 1879 and 1881 – in 1871 only 5a, but 30a by 1881.
In 1871 William and Olive’s family was 10 years older, and Edward and John both aged 12, Sarah aged 10, Ann aged 9, William aged 7, Francis aged 4 and Samuel aged 2 were at home. Charles Carr 21, miller/servant from Bassingham, Lincs and Ann Sibsey/Tibsey, servant aged 14 completed the household.
On Census night William’s wife Olive aged 47 was not at home, but the children Edward Lee (aged 22, unmarried corn miller), Annie aged 19, Frank aged 14 and Samuel aged 12 were.
Visitor John (Turner) Forrington, farmer aged 28 born in Morton, Lincs was later to marry Annie Lee in September 1882. Also at Coddington Church, Sarah Young Lee married William Thompson Millns in 1881. Also present on Census night 1881 were John Marshall, 28, corn miller?s assistant from Walesby, Notts and Elizabeth Reynolds, 16 an unmarried domestic servant from Seacombe, Cheshire.
William Lee died 9th 1884, aged 58 and was buried in Coddington churchyard – in the 1885 directory his wife Olive is recorded as the miller and farmer. (Olive was eventually to join her husband in the graveyard – she died aged 78 in 1912.)
John Lee married Susan Smith at Coddington in 1889. Francis Lee died shortly after his mother in 1913, aged only 46.
Edward Lee
In 1890 Edward Lee married Hannah Elizabeth Daybell. He had taken over the mill and farm – being listed in 1892, 1894, 1897, 1900. By 1901 Edward aged 42 and Hannah Elizabeth aged 39 had a growing family, jost of whom they baptised at the Wesleyan Chapel between 1893 and 1897: Mary aged 8, Eleanor aged 7, Caroline Monica aged 6, Dorothy aged 5, William aged 4, Mabel aged 2 and baby Samuel aged 1 month. His assistants were in 1891 Charles Carr and in 1901 Thomas Claricoates. In 1912, 1916, 1923, 1928, and 1932 he continued to be listed as miller by wind and steam.
Edward was listed as a miller by wind and steam in 1912, 1916, 1923, 1928 and 1932. Edward died 4th Feb 1933, aged 74 and was buried at Coddington. In 1935 the Duke of Newcastle’s papers record a compensation agreement for Long Greenfield Close with the cottage and buildings erected on it, a close of land in Stone Pit Close and Mill Close formerly copyhold property owned by Edward Lee in Coddington, Notts.
Samuel Lee and the end of Milling
Samuel Lee was listed as a miller by wind & oil in 1936-8, 1941-2. In 1936 the sails were still intact, but in 1941 one sail was lost and in 1941 the mill was only powered by oil. In 1944 the mill ceased working. Older residents have said that the last customer to have had flour ground ther in 1944 was Samuel Parkes who delivered it in a barrow.
The mill was sold in 1947, but Edward was still listed at Coddington mill in 1950, 1967 and 1961 – at least 130 years after his ancestor was recorded there. During 1957 – 61 his son William was living at Stone Cottage Balderton Lane (since demolished), whilst Thomas J T Lee was living on Balderton Lane.
In 1879 and 1881 Reuben Lee (26 yr old from Sibthorpe) was listed as a farmer at Beaconfield Farm (200 acres). We don’t know if he is related to the milling family in any way.