Denne's Mill, Potters Corner, Maidstone Road, Hothfield

The Mill House Tea Room seen from Maidstone Road

c1930

The scenic garden entrance to the tea rooms

Kindly provided by Kent Archaeological Society

Two New Zealand soldiers pose by the Mill House around 1940

See our Mysteries page for other pictures from the troops

Extract from the Mill House Tea Room menu c1935

Your chauffeur eats for 9d

Look carefully through the trees and you can see the top of the mill

Mill, Tea Room and house-movers' depot

By Denny Hemming and Chris Rogers

Potter's Corner Mill (also known as Denne's Mill and Hothfield Mill) stands close to the Hothfield boundary on the north side of the main Ashford-Maidstone Road (A20) not far from the Hare and Hounds pub.

The mill stood on a stream that feeds into the Great Stour, the upper reaches of which once powered eight watermills. The mill is of the overshot type and is dated '1852' on the upright shaft of the interior.  The mill was rebuilt by Hill of Ashford and was still in use for cereal milling in 1967.  It retains most of its machinery some of which can be seen inside the offices of the current occupants.

The mill house is a Grade II listed (1980), two-storey building with a brick ground floor and a tile-hung first floor, hipped tiled roof and hipped brick porch.

The History Society has copies of postcards of the Mill's past role as a Tea Room, one of which was kindly provided by Kent Archaeological Society at Maidstone.  The KAS also allowed us to copy a menu card from the 1935 which includes a reference to customers being able to include their Chauffeur's refreshment on their bills.

During the second World War the building was used as a billet along with all the local farmhouses and other big buildings.  Around 1940 a New Zealand soldier took a couple of photos of his stay at the mill.

The site is now used by a number of businesses including a house-movers' haulage company.