manufacturing and transport, all linked to the importance of water.

From the days of Saxon Southampton, the River Itchen was a vital source of food and power to

local people, and a major artery of transport and commerce in Hampshire. By the 18th century,

barges on the Itchen Navigation were carrying bulk goods inland from Southampton's busy docks

significantly more cheaply than was possible on the muddy, rutted roads of the day.

Probably the most dramatic part of Woodmill’s story is the role it played as a factory during the

period of the Napoleonic Wars!!