Built in 1775; Upton Mill was a full working flour mill with outhouses, yard and orchard stretching up to the boundary of the covenanted area. It lost its sails in the early 1920s; presumably now powered by electricity. Many Park residents from the first half of the 20th century recall purchasing bread and cakes directly from them as a working bakery. It closed down becoming uninhabited in 1953.

The mill around the time of WW1 viewed from behind - the site of Old Mill Court.

The projected site plan for Upton Park in the 1850s shows the mill and its yard having two gated entrances - one at each end of the lane passing through it.
The Mill entrance at its junction onto Mill Lane; photographed in 1918 for a postcard.
Only the base of the left pillar remains as does the Victorian letterbox

At the time of establishing the Park the mill owner was William Carter. Pitt Shone & Wood had to negotiate access with him. He is still named in the 1871 census but by 1881 his son-in-law Edward Dean is named as head of household. His son was also named Edward and the UPPA Minute book for the early 1900s records Edward Dean junior as Hon Sec with committee meetings taking place at Upton Mill House.

Other members of the Dean family acquired various houses within the Park during its first few decades.

Reference to the OS maps shows significant expansion by the 1930s, behind the original mill buildings and an access road from the Park roadway. This may have been part of their expansion into bakery. From being Dean's bakery they traded under the name of Country Maid Bakeries and were highly respected for their packaged sliced bread as a new innovation of the day. In 1954 it appears that they considered demolishing the mill as part of modernisation plans for the site and the business. The demolition of the disused shell of the mill was opposed by Upton Park residents and other locals. Eventually, they transfered their operation to Saltney, became part of Sunblest and what is now Allied Bakeries.

and as seen from Mill Lane

After the mill closure there were various proposals for its use but the only actual use that can be recalled was by T Houlbrook & Sons Wholesale Vegetable Merchants during the early 1960s. Their use prevoced considerable local concern with local MP - J M Temple - becoming involved. They moved out and soon demolition and clearance for housing was seen as the only solution.
The chimney - presumably for the ovens - was reputedly felled by the infamous Blaster Bates as part of the demolition process.

a 1979 photograph of the mill with no:104 in the foreground.

In 1979 the mill was put on the market as suitable for conversion to a private residence. Bought and restored by Micheal Field for his own use the boundary wall was rebuilt and with no access to the Park the new dwelling did not become part of Upton Park and its Association.

As it looked 27 Feb 1988 after conversion to a home - a sketch by Arthur Garrod