New Images added to the website.

A selection of images has been added to the Isington page, in the local villages A-K section of the website.

Isington Mill c1950.

These images were published in the 21st April 1950 edition of Country Life.

Once a working mill, it had fallen into a state of disrepair when it was given a new lease of life by Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein.

Keen to find somewhere to settle with his son, Monty became aware of the mill through the headmaster of his son’s school, Major Tom Reynolds. Major Reynolds and his wife had been looking at purchasing Millers House in Isington which led Monty to suggest if they did, he would take on the Mill and renovate it.

The Mill was purchased in 1947 with several articles reporting the new owner was Field Marshall Montgomery including this one in the London Evening News on the 20th June 1947:

‘Isington Mill and Mill House, a picturesque property on the River Wey at Bentley, near Alton, Hants. has been bought by private treaty for Field Marshal Montgomery, who will eventually take up residence there.

The property was bought by his friend. Major T. Reynolds. of Amesbury School, Hindhead, acting on behalf of the Field-Marshal.’

The purchase appears to have taken place earlier in the year, with the Field Marshal sharing an image on page 448 of his memoirs ‘Isington Mill when purchased in February 1947’.

Isington Mill remained his home until his passing there on the 24th March 1976 (the 50th Anniversary of his passing was last week) with his son David and brother Lieut-Col Brian Montgomery by his side.

The images are:

1. The converted Oast Houses and Granary from outside the Caravan Shed.
2. Approaching by the wooden bridge over the River Wey.
3. The Mill seen from across the Mill Pond.
4. The entrance. New Brickwork, with an old millstone on the threshold.
5. The staircase. It leads up from the side of the dining hall.
6. The dining hall which occupies the ground floor of the old Granary. The entrance lobby is through the glass doors seen on the left of the picture.
7. Another view of the dining room.
8. Lord Montgomery's sitting room it fills the first floor above the dining room.
9. Mr David Mongomery's room at the top of the Granary.
10. The East end of the Field Marshal's sitting room.
11. Fitted cupboards of Huon Pine in Lord Montgomery's bedroom.
12. In the Caravan Shed with the rear of the Eighth Army Caravan.
13. Inside the mobile map room designed for Lord Montgomery and used from Normandy to Western Germany.
14. Isington Mill before the Field Marshal's Alterations.
15. The upper storey of the Mill House before 1948.
16. The Mill Wheel.