Stretton Mill And Steps, Millrace And Sluice Adjoining

SJ 45 SE STRETTON C.P. MILL LANE South Side

3/46 Stretton Mill and steps, millrace and sluice adjoining

18/7/72

GV II*

Water-powered cornmill C16 and C17, extended C18 and C19. Weatherboarded oak frame and coursed red sandstone with brown brick leanto extension and chimney of stone and brick at rear; graded grey slate roof, stone plinth and stone replacement as part of the walls of the older (right) part of the mill. C19 extension, left, of stone. 2 storeys plus attic grain store. External overshot wheel of timber on right gable wall. Divided boarded door of oak. 1 leaded casement and 1 iron-barred opening to lower storey and 3 leaded casements to upper storey at front; 1 leaded casement to upper storey and to attic in west gable; all have oak shutters on wrought iron hinges. East gable end has camber-arched barred opening to the internal wheel-pit with an oak boarded loading-door above flanked by small leaded and shuttered casements. 2 leaded, shuttered casements in C18 leanto at rear, and boarded door. The chimney of stone has a diagonal flue of brick; the stonework bears carved initials and dates: IHM 1763; JOHN HUGHES; GD; HB; ?W 17?? Bargeboards; eaves have exposed rafters. Adjoining east gable wall is a flight of stone steps up mill dam, and a stone-walled millrace with sluice. Interior contains a breastwheel in C19 extension, left, driving a complete train of mid-Victorian largely cast iron machinery, and (right) a train of restored largely C18 wooden machinery driven by the external wheel. On lower storey at rear is a forge-hearth. On upper floor (reached by steep stair left of entrance) are the underdrift millstones, ancillary equipment and hoist-hatch. In the leanto extension are carved on east side of chimney: PB; IR; IMO; 1640; EW(?); PB 1712. Grain loft (access by ladder) in older (right) part of main building contains 2 diagonal-strut oak trusses with windbraces, chamfered oak purlins and diagonally set ridge-piece. The oak frame and kingpost truss of the former left gable (now between the older part and the C19 extension of the mill) survives. The mill machinery (restored by Dr Cyril Boucher partly at the expense of the Science Museum, in 1967) is of national importance. J H Norris The Water-powered Cornmills of Cheshire, O J P Bott Cornmill Sites in Cheshire Parts 2 & 3, Cheshire History Nos.11 and 13. . . .

Listing NGR: SJ4545053014