Hibaldstow Mill And Retaining Walls To Mill Pond And Wheel Race

Hibaldstow Mill and Retaining Walls to Mill Pond and Wheel Race

A combined windmill and watermill with attached dwelling, built in 1802 by James Middleton of Hibaldstow, a millwright. The top storey of the tower was added in 1837 for James Tenney, the miller. An engine-house was constructed to the north in 1912. The building has undergone 20th-century patching and repairs.

The main structure is built of hammer-dressed limestone and coursed rubble with later brick patching and repairs to openings. The south face of the roundhouse is rendered, and the lower courses of the tower are tarred. Red brick forms the top storey of the tower. The roundhouse originally had a York stone roof, which was concreted over in the 20th century. The wheel-house has a pantile roof. Brick retaining walls bound the mill-pond, while limestone rubble and brick retaining walls retain the wheel-race.

The plan consists of a roundhouse approximately 12 metres in diameter with opposed east and west entrances and a flattened south face for the water-wheel. A gabled 2-room wheel-house adjoins on this side. The interior of the roundhouse is divided radially by eight walls, forming deep alcoves or rooms around a central circular space approximately 5.5 metres in diameter. These radial walls are linked by round-arched vaults at second-storey level, supporting the roof and the tapering round-tower above, which measures approximately 7 metres in diameter at its base. A 2-storey roundhouse supports the central 7-storey tower, which is approximately 19 metres high. The roundhouse roof forms a balcony at second-floor level. The wheel-house is single-storey with two openings.

The main entrance faces east, approached by two steps made from re-used blue Cologne millstone, forming a small semi-circular loading platform. A recessed 2-fold board door with a cat-hole beneath a segmental arch marks the entrance. Single windows to either side are boarded-up; the right window sits beneath a segmental arch, while the left has a brick surround and timber lintel. Other windows and the west door are obscured by the engine-house and 20th-century sheds.

At second-floor level, a board door to the south-east has a segmental-headed brick surround. Seven segmental-headed windows are present, two with brick-repaired arches; five are glazed, one has board shutters, and one is boarded-up. Stepped eaves feature projecting flagstone overhang. Wrought-iron balcony railings with plain posts and single top-rails enclose this level.

The tower's third floor has a 2-fold board door to the east with strap hinges beneath a timber lintel and a part-glazed 2-fold door to the west beneath a segmental arch. Three segmental-arched windows are positioned here. The fourth floor contains four windows; the fifth floor has two windows; and the sixth floor has three windows, two of which are boarded-up. The top stage features a single boarded window and a corbelled-out upper section with a cogged brick band. Windows throughout carry double-doored shutters or later hinged casements with glazing bars, many with glass missing at the time of survey.

The wheel-house's east side features an opening to a brick and stone-lined mill-race, now floored-over, and a pair of board doors to the left beneath a lintel at eaves level. At the time of survey, the wheel-house was derelict with its gable-end partly collapsed. The partly infilled mill-pond to the west has brick-coped retaining walls flanking the entrance to the wheel-race.

Internally, the floors and main structural framework remain intact, incorporating some timberwork from former post-mills. A winding staircase with moulded handrail ascends through the roundhouse. The ground floor contains gears and shafts for machine drive. A pair of millstones sits on the first floor, originally under-driven by the waterwheel. A second pair of stones, machine-driven, occupies the second floor. The third floor contains a spur-wheel, drive shafts, and frames for two sets of stones, originally powered by wind-sails (the stones have since been removed). One ground-floor alcove and another directly above on the first floor contain fireplaces; the latter features a 19th-century cast-iron duck's nest grate.

The mill served as a dwelling for the miller and his family until the 1880s. The undershot water-wheel was removed in 1912, the four sails in 1913, and the ogee cap in 1924. The mill-pond was filled in during the 1940s.

With its accompanying range of contemporary outbuildings, this mill is one of very few examples of combined wind and water-mills in Britain. The highly accomplished design is particularly notable and probably unique. The building was disused and in disrepair at the time of survey.