Fishwick (1894) argues that "a family of the name of Jolly, Jolley, or Jollie was settled in Lancashire certainly in the sixteenth century, but probably at a much earlier date".
| In the late seventeenth century, we find two records of a Standish place-name
- Jolly Milne - which suggests the family's association with the locality may have been of some antiquity.
In his 1690 itinerary, Dr Kuerden records: "Having passed a mile from Wigan to the Bear's Head, keeping the right hand road you pass over a little rill by Jolly Mill, about a quarter of a mile. You leave on the right a road with a stone bridge over Douglas Water, leading from Standish to Blackrod, and the church and town of Standish, passing by another mill called Worthington Mill, and shortly after by Worthington Hall." Inset: Jolly Milne, the ancient watermill |
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In his History of the Parish of Standish, Porteus (1927) suggests the mill was built in 1348 by John de Standish on a grant of land from Richard de Langtree. By 1660, John Jolly of Jolly Milne in Standish is recorded as a trusty friend and executor of Nathaniel Leigh, gentleman. Milne (Old English mylen) is an archaic form of mill, much used in the fourteenth century but rarely seen after the seventeenth.
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Porteus suggests that the Jolly family also leased the adjacent Mill Farm in the eighteenth century. The fields included Kiln Croft, Great and Little Ridgeway (later Ridgeworth), Meadow between Waters and Wheat Holme. The family also held associated properties in Lurdin Lane. The River Douglas itself has romantic associations - Nennius tells us that four of King Arthur's twelve heroic battles were fought along the banks of the "Dubglas River". The grey industrial hue of today's river gives little hint of those knightly days of yore.
Inset:Jolly Milne, the east front |
There was also a mill pond at Jolly Milne which by 1910 had been adapted as the Curling Pond of the Wigan Curling Club. By 1925, what was left of the mill was being used as a motor workshop and a clog sole factory. In fact, although very derelict, the mill still stands seventy-five years later and was recently on the market for restoration as a listed building. Jolly Mill Cottage -- a red brick Victorian cottage -- stands close by. In the 1990s, the vendor, William Fairhurst, the last owner-manager of the mill, was living in Vale House next door to the derelict mill, with his son and family at Jolly Mill Cottage.
The most detailed modern account of Jolly Milne is provided by Morris (1995).
For further information, see:
| Fishwick, H, ed. | The Note Book of the Rev Thomas Jolly, 1671-93, and an Account of the Jolly Family of Standish, Eaton and Altham (Chetham Society, Vol XXXIII, 1894) | |
| Morris, A | Standish Corn-Mills and Millers (Landy Publishing: Blackpool 1995) | |
| Porteus, TC | A History of the Parish of Standish (Starr & Sons: Wigan 1927) |
