The Gristmill

Stratford Mill is the only active water-powered gristmill on the Northern Neck and offers the public a unique opportunity to learn about the value of mills, millers, and millwrights in early America.

Stratford Hall has a rich history of milling. A 1721 survey confirms a water-powered gristmill on this site. By 1745 enslaved workers completed a new gristmill, which supplied flour and meal to Thomas Lee’s Stratford and milling services to locals.

The gristmill was a vital source of family wealth and flourished as a result of improvements to Stratford Landing under Philip Ludwell Lee and the management of enslaved African American miller James. Light-Horse Harry Lee kept current with innovations in milling by consulting engineer Oliver Evan’s The Young Mill-Wright & Miller’s Guide (1795).

In the wake of the Civil War, Stratford’s new owners, Elizabeth McCarty Storke and her heirs, leased the gristmill to local entrepreneurs. A steam boiler briefly powered production before the gristmill shuttered operations in 1906. By 1929 only its bogstone foundation remained. 

On October 19, 1939, Stratford Hall’s Board of Directors reopened the reconstructed gristmill, which has since operated with only periodic downtime for maintenance and restoration.