We are currently near 70 Patch Road.
Walking along Patch Road is a journey through history, tracing the footsteps of families who once cultivated the surrounding land and supported the hamlets it connected. Named after the influential Patch family, the road reflects their legacy in Millington’s early 20th-century commercial and agricultural development.
Millers, sawyers, postmasters, shopkeepers, farmers… the Patches owned some 200 acres on both sides of the road, boasting a big sugar bush and an orchard. Their businesses included a large stable and a carriage house which was used to house the lumber teams, wagons and sleds. Near the North/Patch intersection stood the Place house, which housed an inn, ballroom, and general store.
Following a devastating fire that the destroyed the house and the accidental death of Stilman Patch, the family returned to New England. By 1918, Millington’s mills and buildings gradually disappeared. The Methodist church (1815), the blacksmith shop, the elementary school were soon nothing more than a memory.
Close your eyes and imagine the vibrant hamlet that once stood here: the hum of the mills on Powell Brook, the voices of workers, the laughter of children, the bleating of the sheep and, of course, the roar of the brook in the spring —all echoing through the valley.
Today, only the old barn remains visible. Nature has reclaimed the area—vegetation now covers the mill ruins, and the old drainage ditch that had been dug for agricultural purposes has given way to naturally formed wetlands rich in biodiversity. A new landscape is emerging, shaped by time and resilience.