The Davis Family and Twyford Mill.
The Davis family, owners of Twyford Mill for 82 years, was large even by the standards of the time. My great-great-grandfather, William Henry Davis, bought Mill House at Twyford in 1845 and the mill and its cottages shortly afterwards. He came to the village from Sanford Mill and had ten children by his first wife Hannah, who died in 1868. Two years later he married again and his second wife bore him six more.
His second child, Lawrence, at age 30 in 1874 took over the running of the, by then, prosperous flour mill when his father moved to Wallingford. Much has been written in the Journal about Lawrence. Twyford in the 1870's had a population numbering not much more than 1,000 and he played a major pad in the community. He enlarged the mill and in 1878 arranged for a rail siding to be laid to it by the Great Western Railway Company.
He was certainly a significant benefactor to the village. In 1875 he founded the Twyford Fire Brigade, took on the captaincy and housed the engine at his mill. He built the Cafe and Hall at the Beeches (see Journals 3,4 and 5) and took a prominent part in the restoration of the Church and in obtaining its organ. Altogether he appeared to be a figure larger life and the circumstances surrounding his sudden and tragic death on April 9th 1886 are quite inexplicable.
From reports in the Reading Mercury it appears that he rose at his usual early hour, walked over to the mill where he spent a short time transacting some business and then returned to his home for breakfast. Later, back at his office, he told his clerk, Mr Reynolds, that he had left the orders of the day on his desk and went to another part of the building. When his son, Stanley, arrived soon afterwards, Mr Reynolds showed him a slip of paper which immediately aroused their suspicions (the contents were apparently not
TWYFORD
The cart side reads: Lawrence Davis Ltd, Flour Mills,
William Davis's cottages in Davis Street.
There had been a Workhouse here. In 1837 the property was purchased by William Davis. He mortgaged the cottages for £600 and built:
“All those eight newly erected messuages and tenements and building erected and built by the said William Davis, and all those six cottages or tenements then in the course of erection by the said William Davis.”
There had been a Workhouse here. In 1837 the property was purchased by William Davis. He mortgaged the cottages for £600 and built:
“All those eight newly erected messuages and tenements and building erected and built by the said William Davis, and all those six cottages or tenements then in the course of erection by the said William Davis.”
