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the history of Leyton and Leytonstone
from . dot to … dots – with plenty of spaces
Industry
1540 - 1642, The Dissolution of the Monasteries to the Civil War
Leyton parish registers show an Abraham Baker to have been the tenant of Temple Mills in 1620. Baker was a native of Flanders who held from 1609 a monopoly of making a product for washing linen, by pulverising and mixing with starch glass that had been coloured deep blue. Rapeseed was also being ground for oil at the mills. Lea bargemen complained that Baker was taking too much water from the navigable channel, and the City of London was concerned about the supply of water to its mills on the Lea. Baker died in 1642 1. The Trafford family of Capworth Street were rich enough to own Temple Mills (renting them to Abraham Baker by 1637 2 and to use the courts of Richard Cromwell to defend the trees of Wallwood from others.