Carlinghow Mill

Carlinghow Mill

A former water mill dating to the eighteenth century, with additions and alterations made in the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The buildings are now principally used for storage.

The mill is constructed in coursed squared sandstone with a pitched stone slate roof. The other attached buildings are principally stone, some coursed, with some brick infills and later walls, and stone slate or corrugated tin roofs.

The buildings comprise three linked elements set in a large open yard on sloping ground. The former main mill building, with an extension to the rear featuring a truncated chimney, stands at the north-east end of the site. A barn aligned south-west to north-east stands to its west, separated by a narrow passage. A further range extends south-east from the western end of the barn. The former water wheel pit is attached to the north-east side of the main mill. Various other buildings of different dates stand within the yard but are excluded from the listing.

The main mill building has three storeys plus attics, with a lower portion to the rear. Its main gabled elevation faces south-east and has a central entrance with stone jambs and a window to either side with flat face stone mullions and modern glazing. Above the door is an altered large taking-in opening with a concrete lintel and similar windows. The second storey has a smaller taking-in door and comparable windows. The pediment contains a Venetian window with partially replaced stone architrave.

The north-east return elevation is partially obscured by a neighbouring block in the course of being rebuilt; this building is excluded from the listing. The upper part of the north-east wall shows the scar where this building previously attached to the mill. A doorway into the mill is visible toward the left side, with a further blocked opening higher up to the right.

The south-west return elevation is attached to a rebuilt office block by a first floor link, with windows at ground and second floor level with modern glazing. The rear of the main mill has a two-storey extension on rising ground with windows on its north-east elevation blocked with breeze-blocks. Other windows at the rear are blocked except for a Venetian window in the pediment with a renewed stone architrave. The rear extension block has altered openings to the rear and on its south-west elevation, with modern glazing and stone architraves, including an entrance on the south-west side. A square-plan truncated chimney is attached to the north-west corner of the rear extension block, constructed in stone up to roof level and red brick above with a stone capping.

The barn is built in coursed stone with quoins. It has central opposed four-centred arched wagon entrances with long and short jamb stones and voussoirs. Four square windows are located at first floor level on the north-west side, two blocked, with ventilation slits at ground floor level. The south-east side is largely obscured by other buildings. The roof is corrugated metal. The south-west gable end has a single first floor opening.

Attached to the barn and extending south-east from its western end is a single-storey block with a pitched corrugated metal roof, forming the other side of the U-shaped arrangement with a gable end to the south-east. Its south-west side has altered openings and some brick and breeze-block infill. The north-east side has a doorway with a heavy stone lintel and a stone mullioned window.

The ground floor of the mill interior is a largely open space with brick pillars supporting a concrete ceiling and concrete stairs leading to the first floor. The first floor is similar, with some remains of line shafts from the second half of the twentieth century and timber beams supporting a wooden ceiling. An opening to the south-west leads into a storage area within the link to the rebuilt office block. The second floor is also similar, with further line shaft remains and a steep open tread wooden stair to the attic floor.

The attic floor has exposed roof timbers with a mixture of machine and hand-cut timbers forming the trusses and purlins. The trusses are queen post, with additional braces and pegged purlins above the collar, and a second purlin below the collar. The common rafters are late twentieth or early twenty-first century, some other timbers appear modern, and there are steel supporting beams and braces on some trusses.

The barn interior is open with roof timbers replaced in the late twentieth or early twenty-first century. The south-west range has king post trusses with large tie beams, one set of substantial purlins, and other lighter machine-cut timbers. A further set of massive tie beams sits at a lower level, emerging from the walls. The roof covering and common rafters are modern. Remains of the water wheel pit are visible alongside the outer mill wall.

The rebuilt office block standing immediately to the south-west of the main mill on the footprint of an earlier building, a partially rebuilt block immediately to the north-east of the main mill, and a small twentieth-century block attached to the gable end of the south-west range are excluded from the listing as not of special architectural or historic interest. The interior of the rear extension of the main mill building, converted to office use with modern partitions, is also excluded from the listing.