Alwent Mill And Mill Race

Alwent Mill is a water-powered mill for grinding corn, dated 1792, with later 19th-century alterations. It is constructed of dressed sandstone and features an ashlar mill race, a cast-iron and timber mill wheel, and a pantiled roof with a triple course of sandstone flags at the eaves of the central section and a single row on the left section. The building is two storeys high and has four bays. The left section, which is a single bay, and the central section, also a single bay and quoined, project from the main structure. The left section has a boarded door and two blocked openings to the right. The two-bay right section features a central Dutch door with a flat surround and a lintel dated 1792, while the first floor has two boarded openings. The roof has slightly projecting eaves and a raised verge on the left.

The mill race enters at the rear of the left return through a wooden sluice. The stream once powered a high breast-shot water wheel over 4 metres in diameter, which operated three pairs of different grindstones. There is a small oat-drying kiln in the room above the waterwheel.

Alwent Mill is notable as one of the few watermills in County Durham that still retains its machinery and was in operation until around 1948. A single-storey addition to the left is not of special interest.