An A to Z of Watermills, Mainly in Ayrshire. Part 1 (A to F) - RoGr > .
An A to Z of Mainly Ayrshire Watermills Part 2 (G to L) - RoGr > .
An A to Z of Mainly Ayrshire Mills Part 3 (M to Z) - RoGr > .
An A to Z of Mainly Ayrshire Watermills Part 2 (G to L) - RoGr > .
An A to Z of Mainly Ayrshire Mills Part 3 (M to Z) - RoGr > .
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Thirlage was a feudal servitude (or astriction) under Scots law restricting manorial tenants in the milling of their grain for personal or other uses. Vassals in a feudal barony were thirled to their local mill owned by the feudal superior. People so thirled were called suckeners and were obliged to pay customary dues for use of the mill and help maintain it.Thirlage was the feudal law by which the laird (superior) could force all those vassals living on his lands to bring their grain to his mill to be ground. The law ensured that all the grain the vassals produced could be measured and thus taxed. Vassals had to carry out repairs on the mill, maintaining the lade and weir as well as conveying new millstones to the site.
An identical feudal astriction existed and was enforced actively in feudal western Europe, e.g. mill soke in England, banalité du moulin in France, banmolen in the Netherlands, Mühlenzwang in Germany.
Trees such as beech and particularly hornbeam were grown as a crop to provide the necessary wood for the mill machinery.
The term thirlage is a metathesis of Scots thrillage ‘thralldom’, derived from thril ‘thrall’, which was a body servant, retainer, or vassal to a noble or chief. The term is interchangeable with Scots carl (or English churl) and indicates subservience to the feudal superior and feudal laws; the situation being close to slavery.
The ‘sucken’ was the area over which a mill held thirlage over tenants and a ‘suckener’ (or ‘in-sucken multurer’) was a tenant thirled to a particular mill. The millers were obliged to enforce the adherence of tenants to the thirlage laws, since the income of the miller was based on that portion of the tenants' grain that the miller was legally entitled to take for the act of milling the grain. The legal term ‘astricted’ was applied to a tenant who was thirled or bonded to a particular mill.[3] The term outsucken was applied to a mill which ground corn from outside its sucken for whatever reason.
Multure (or mulcture), pronounced ‘mooter’, was the name for the mill toll: a fixed proportion of the tenant's grain, paid to the miller by the suckener to grind the corn. The term ‘dry multure’ was often used, indicating the multure that a tenant had to pay, whether the grain was to be ground or not. Failure to take grain to the thirled mill was termed 'abstracted multure' and could result in the suckener being fined. The term 'bannock' denoted the payment to a miller's servant amounting to a handful of meal, in addition to that given as knaveship, this being a handful of cereal from each load milled. After the abolition of thirlage the term 'lick of goodwill' or 'lock' was the term for the miller's payment for grinding the cereal, etc.
The term thirlage is a metathesis of Scots thrillage ‘thralldom’, derived from thril ‘thrall’, which was a body servant, retainer, or vassal to a noble or chief. The term is interchangeable with Scots carl (or English churl) and indicates subservience to the feudal superior and feudal laws; the situation being close to slavery.
The ‘sucken’ was the area over which a mill held thirlage over tenants and a ‘suckener’ (or ‘in-sucken multurer’) was a tenant thirled to a particular mill. The millers were obliged to enforce the adherence of tenants to the thirlage laws, since the income of the miller was based on that portion of the tenants' grain that the miller was legally entitled to take for the act of milling the grain. The legal term ‘astricted’ was applied to a tenant who was thirled or bonded to a particular mill.[3] The term outsucken was applied to a mill which ground corn from outside its sucken for whatever reason.
Multure (or mulcture), pronounced ‘mooter’, was the name for the mill toll: a fixed proportion of the tenant's grain, paid to the miller by the suckener to grind the corn. The term ‘dry multure’ was often used, indicating the multure that a tenant had to pay, whether the grain was to be ground or not. Failure to take grain to the thirled mill was termed 'abstracted multure' and could result in the suckener being fined. The term 'bannock' denoted the payment to a miller's servant amounting to a handful of meal, in addition to that given as knaveship, this being a handful of cereal from each load milled. After the abolition of thirlage the term 'lick of goodwill' or 'lock' was the term for the miller's payment for grinding the cereal, etc.
Grassum was the payment, amounting to a year's rent, for a miller to enter into rights under the law of thirlage. This was a significant sum, and the miller was often forced to insist on his rights of multure to make a reasonable living.
The obligations of thirlage eventually ceased to apply, but thirlage in Scotland was only formally and totally abolished on 28 November (Martinmas) 2004 by the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000.
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Coldstream Mill near Beith was one of the last operating in Scotland. The remains of mills can be located by the remains of the waterwheels, lades, wheel pits, kilns, dams, weirs, sluices and most often by the millstones. Kaim Hill near Fairlie was a quarry that produced many of Ayrshire's millstones.
Many old lochs were drained when they were no longer required to supply water and this changed the appearance of the countryside. The remains of these lochs often became curling ponds until they were in turn abandoned.
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Coldstream Mill near Beith was one of the last operating in Scotland. The remains of mills can be located by the remains of the waterwheels, lades, wheel pits, kilns, dams, weirs, sluices and most often by the millstones. Kaim Hill near Fairlie was a quarry that produced many of Ayrshire's millstones.
Many old lochs were drained when they were no longer required to supply water and this changed the appearance of the countryside. The remains of these lochs often became curling ponds until they were in turn abandoned.
