William Ellis built a gristmill and sawmill at the head of the tidewaters on the Bideford or Goodwood River in Smelt Creek , where the present dam is located. He sent to England for a miller, John Barlow , who arrived in 1832, and after clearing a farm for himself, built a carding mill. The loca¬ tion of this mill along with a shingle mill is shown in the 1880 Atlas a lit¬ tle farther upstream from the other mills. After William Ellis 's death in 1855, John Barlow bought the mills, and in 1859 sold them to William Barclay , and moved to Wellington. The road that went by the mills was called the . It is told that the old used to fol¬ low the brook. Alexander Millar was an experienced miller and millwright who came to Prince Edward Island from Scotland , arriving in Charlottetown in August 1850, accompanied by a son and a son-in-law. His wife, nee Janet Crombie , and other children arrived in May 1851, leaving two married daughters in Scotland . Alexander repaired gristmills at Brackley and South Rustico , a flour mill at West River and Clark's Mill at Wilmot. Returning to South Rustico , he built additional milling machinery for producing oatmeal. He made smutters to remove smut from grain and fitted up a complete con¬ tinuing millwright work. He was employed at the mills of Dr. Conroy , John England 's Mills at Bideford . —from blanche England collection 22 Roots & Branches