Nash Mills is a very old settlement. The
village and the local mill both have the same name, Nash Mills. It
means the mill by the ash tree and came about by the erroneous
division of the Middle English atten ash.
In the medieval court rolls, Le Ashmill and
Nashmyle are mentioned. Originally the mill was used for grinding
corn and in the late 17th century it was converted from corn
milling to paper making, which at the time was a hand process and
remained so until John Dickinson came on the local scene, acquiring
Apsley Mill in 1809 and Nash Mills two years later.
John Dickinson was hard working and inventive.
He patented thirteen inventions concerned with paper making and his
enterprise John Dickinson and Company prospered. In 1836 he built
his country house in Nash Mills and called it Abbot's Hill. It is
now a private school. He was the founder of Nash Mills school
"built for the benefit of his apprentices and the young people of
the village".
The John Dickinson site was recently sold,
nearly 200 years after John Dickinson first arrived on the scene,
and is being re-developed as a marina and housing complex. There
are approximately 1750 people on the electoral register for Nash
Mills.