Slipper Mill Pond is South of Hermitage Bridge on the A259 and forms the border between West Sussex and Hampshire.
Its water source is the South Downs via a relatively recent diversions of the river Ems, a rare type of chalk upland stream or ‘Bourne’ where this area gets its name from.
The first record of Slipper Mill Pond is in 1640 when it was actually Norton Common, part of the Manor of Stansted, and simply an open space with the River Ems flowing through the middle of it.
Created in the Middle Ages the pond powered water mills via a sluice gate system. Technically these are called tidal gates. They open when the pond is lower than tide level for use by the now defunct mill and, being kept in working order, still function.
The first Slipper Mill was built in the 1760s by Thomas Hendy as part of his industrial developments at the mouth of the River Ems. Norton Common was then enclosed to form the Slipper Mill Pond.
Local mills have played a significant part in the history of Southbourne and Emsworth. Converted mill buildings and the millponds are the remains of a thriving flour industry which secured lucrative contracts, especially during the early part of the 19th Century, for the manufacture of ships’ biscuit for the Navy.
Slipper mill pond and the gates that control the flow of water, are a significant historic, amenity and environmental feature of this border area which straddles Hampshire and West Sussex.
The functional sluice gate itself is to the west of Slipper Pond.
Did you know?
Lord’s Mill in the vicinity of the pond was the first operational Emsworth mill, powered by water diverted from the Ems with a leat, the name for a channel supplying a mill.
This channel started at Constant Spring just below Lumley Mill, widening for its last 400 metres above the mill to form a linear pond. Its outfall then continued on into Chichester Harbour, probably to the West of the present course of Dolphin Creek.
Did you know?
The Slipper Mill Preservation Society, who manage the Slipper Pond, open the sluice gates and drain both ponds for about a week from September to February every year. This clears the silt and allows various fish species like trout to run through the series of ponds and up the river to spawn.
- Read more about the two Hermitage Mill Ponds – click here
- Read more about Peter Pond just to the north – click here
- Read about the Slipper Mill Pond Preservation Society – click here