Battersea,
or Patrick's-Ea, lay four miles from London on the banks of the Thames.
The manor was originally possessed by the abbot and convent of Westminster,
but came into the hands of the Crown during the Dissolution.
Charles I then granted the lands to Sir Oliver St John, and by the Regency
period the lands were in the possession of the Earl of Spencer.
The
family seat "was a venerable structure, which contained forty rooms
on a floor; the greatest part of the house was pulled down in 1778."
On its site was built a horizontal air mill and malt distillery (the
mill being used to grind malt). The mill, pictured above, was hung with
ninety-six shutters, which, in the manner of Venetian blinds, could
be opened and closed; wind rushing through the open shutters drove the
sails of the mill.
Apart
from the mill, Battersea was famed far and wide for its fine asparagus
as also for a free school for twenty boys founded by Sir Walter St John.
A bridge spanned the Thames from Battersea to Chelsea. The church was
repaired in the early nineteenth century.
