The tithe map of Preston parish before it became urbanised shows that most of the land between Dyke Road and the future route of the railway line was owned by Thomas Stanford and farmed by his son Thomas junior. Thomas senior himself farmed a field in the southeast corner of present-day Prestonville, and another by the Old Shoreham Road-Dyke Road junction was owned by Sir Isaac Goldsmid, 1st Baronet. A post mill called Port Hall Mill, next to the house called Port Hall, existed between 1795 and 1887. Another mill, Preston Mill, occupied the present site of Old Mill Works in Highcroft Villas between 1797 and 1881. Before 1797 it stood on the land now occupied by Regency Square on Brighton seafront. Two paintings of 36 yoke of oxen transporting it up the hill to its new location can be found in Preston Manor. Later names for the mill included Trusler's, Black and Streeter's Mill. Waterhall Mill at Patcham contains some of the machinery salvaged when it was demolished.