Way off in the woods in Westmoreland NH, 3/4 mile from the nearest town road, there is an ancient water-powered mill site. There are no known records of this site, which may date to the late 1700s. It is in the headwaters of Governor's Brook, land called "Dishy Land" or "Dish Land" by old timers.
The first picture was taken in April 2025 - the one just above in 2002. There are two parallel stone walls , whose inner faces are laid up almost perfectly flush.
This closeup of the eastern wall, facing the brook, shows a very well crafted near vertical face. The two walls are approximately 70' long and straddle the brook. They appear to be at the same height. I wonder if these near perfect wall faces were made to contain squared posts for a large mill building?
The above overview of the site, looking east, shows the access trail and a bridge built recently by ATV trail riders. To the left is a large almost level area where a mill pond could have existed.(see maps below). This site is at the most southerly edge of the level area, where Governor's Brook begins its descent to the Connecticut River a few miles away.
This pic, looking west, shows the two walls and old ATV bridge remains in foreground. At the far right you can see the modern ATV bridge.
Here is the modern ATV bridge at the north end of the two walls. Except for these stones, There is no obvious mill dam. Surely there was a large dam, perhaps made of wood. Or perhaps there was a dam further up stream??
This map shows the whole area. The two walls are in the middle, just above the Westmoreland town line. The heavy curved line above left is a 2200' long woods road that leads out to Lincoln Hill Road, a discontinued county road that joins Hutchins road in Chesterfield. That is a steep uphill climb from the mill site. A much more level wood road is the diagonal route in the lower left which, though about 3/4 mile from Hutchins Road, would seem the likely route out for sawn boards or whatever was being produced at this mill. There are signs of another possible site about 700; southwest of the main site,seen here just above the diagonal stonewall where it crosses the brook.
In this location map the mill site is the small round dot.. The access road is the diagonal line leading to Hutchins Road.This is from the 1958 USGS map which nicely shows the several-acres flat area nestled between large hills on 3 sides - a natural basin perhaps called "Dish Land" by our forbears.
This larger area location map shows that West Chesterfield and lands to the south were the likely market area for the Dish Land mill. While the mill site is in Westmoreland,, just over the town line, there is no easy access in and out from any main roads in that town.
Now, why don't we know anything about this site? There is nothing in the 1976 Westmoreland history, and nothing in Chesterfields 1881 history except a vague "once occupied by settlers" note. This site is not labelled on the 1858 map which shows dozens of mills sites in both towns and many roads now abandoned. If it was functioning in the early 1800s, Oran Randall, author of Chesterfield;s history, would surely have noted it, as he refers to several sawmills built in the early years.... This suggests a mill that failed a long time ago.
It was a huge effort to build those two 70' long walls. Probably weeks of work by several men. Who did that an why?
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