The area around Mandale Bridge was home not only to a mill, but an inn and Mandale Farm.

In a map surveyed in 1853, a windmill is sited at a point which would now be on Littleboy Drive in Thornaby. The map also includes a public house named the “Windmill Inn”, sitting at a point which we could now reconcile as being on the grounds of Mandale House Care Home.

Despite the thought that the windmill was the result of the cut being made in the Tees resulting in the water mill becoming unfeasible, research of maps and other contemporary evidence shows that this most likely is not the case.

In a map dated as being surveyed in 1892 the windmill is gone; however a trigonometrical point is listed roughly where the windmill would have been.

Also on a larger scale 1892 map the building by the old River Tees is displayed as a corn mill, the next available map of the same scale does not show the building listed as a mill at all.

The lack of a mill in subsequent maps and the change of locations could be explained by some of the factors below, you see mills around the Mandale Bridge area also have a tragic and mysterious history.

In 1891 Mandale Mill was destroyed by fire. The Northern Echo of 6^th May 1891 reports that the previous night the mill, owned by Lord Harewood but run by Mark Robinson, had caught fire. Despite the best efforts of the fire brigade the mill was gutted and lay in ruins. The mill at the time was said to have been powered by both steam and wind. It is unclear if this refers to the windmill, or the larger mill building by the old course of the river. However it is said that the building which was destroyed contained a considerable quantity of grain, and machinery which was also destroyed. This may explain why by the 1892 map the windmill is no longed mapped and the mill has moved to the building adjacent to Mandale Bridge.

On the morning of Saturday 20th May 1893 a body was found in the River Tees at Stockton. The body was that of Mark Robinson. Mr. Robinson was resident at Mandale Farm and had been nominated as a Justice of the Peace though at the time it was believed he did not qualify. Through subsequent research I have found he was a Justice of the Peace.

Aside from farming at Mandale Farm Mr. Robinson, a member of the Lodge of Philanthropy, was a partner of the timber merchants firm Robinson, Anderson & Co. which formed as a iron and timber producer in 1842, known as Robinson, Knights & Co., until being taken over by Mark Robinson and Charles Anderson around 1880.

Indeed in the Bulmer’s directory of 1890 Mark Robinson is listed as a timber merchant at Tees Saw Mills, farmer of Mandale, and Miller of Mandale Mill. More than this he was a former partner in a cabinet and furniture makers too.

An 1893 edition The Yorkshire Post tells us that the deceased left home at around 6 o’clock on the morning of Saturday 13th May, however The Yorkshire Herald says that particular week he had been rising at around 5.30 in order to stocktake at the mill. This morning he was seen by his farm foreman, and was seen in the village of old Thornaby soon after. When leaving home Mr. Robinson indicated he was going to the timber yard office.

His disappearance was solved tragically when his body was found in the Tees at Victoria Bridge at Stockton. A watch found in Mr. Robinson’s pocket had stopped at 6.20. However having been missing for a number of days, when exactly he entered the water is questionable.

The Yorkshire Herald of 23rd May 1893 tells us an open verdict was returned by the jury despite there being letters found indicating that Mr. Robinson was feeling depressed and expressed a feeling of wanting to end his life.

48 years of age he left his wife Margaret Robinson nee Garbutt, and three sons. The family who had been tenants of the Lords Harewood (Margaret’s family farming on Harewood land for generations) remained on Mandale Farm the 1901 census lists Margaret and her son’s Mark Robinson aged 23, Norman Robinson aged 19 (James Robinson aged 16 was boarding at an address in York for education).

Aside from this tragic story in later years a woman was found having died of exposure in the yard of the mill and in 1890 a former domestic servant of Mr. Robinson at Mandale Farm was murdered.