On 12th October 1863 at auction, William Parker bought the former Silk Mill, situated at the end of Mill Lane, Badsey.  He wasted no time in converting it to residential accommodation.  Here is his story.

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Thomas Bolland Langley, silk throwster, lived in Badsey probably for only about a year, but he left behind him a string of problems which helped to sound the death knell of Badsey Silk Mill.  His career as a silk throwster lasted only for the length of time that he lived in Badsey.  Before that, he was a man of the cloth.  So just who was the real Thomas Bolland Langley?

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Some time around 1820, Wingfield Gee, a silk throwster, moved from his native Cheshire to Worcestershire.  He and his sons were associated with the silk mill at Badsey from around 1830 to the late 1840s.

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Wingfield Gee (1788-1850)

Wingfield Gee was born at Astbury, Macclesfield, Cheshire, in 1788, the fourth of five children of Jesse Gee and his wife, Frances (née Harding).  He was baptised on 7th September 1788.  

In 1818, John Thorp, a silk manufacturer from Coventry, bought the old corn mill in Badsey and converted it into a silk mill.  It remained in the Thorp family ownership for nearly half a century.

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