Forge Mill

Forge Mill is a cotton spinning mill, incorporating a mill house and now used as a store. It was built in 1787 by the Robinson family of Papplewick. The building is constructed of coursed and squared rubble and dressed stone with hipped and gabled slate and plain tile roofs, renewed in the late 20th century. Stone quoins are present, along with a single external side wall stack. The mill has three storeys plus a basement, spanning nine bays, with a single, set-back two-storey wing. Windows are a mix of 19th and 20th-century casements and glazing bar sashes. The basement has half-round openings, and the top floor windows are smaller. The south front features, to the left, a wing with two basement openings. The mill itself has a door to the left, followed by three openings, then a 20th-century loading door in an altered opening. Beyond this, there are four openings, one of which is blocked. Above, the wing to the left has a casement and a sash. The mill has a casement flanked by two blocked openings, followed by a hatch and a loading door, then five casements, two of which are blocked. Further along, there are two sashes, then two casements, one blocked, followed by a loading door, and then six casements, one blocked. Above again, to the left, there is a loading door flanked by single casements, and to the right, two casements. The west end of the mill house has a door flanked by a casement and a sash, with a sash above and two sashes in the mill gable above that. The east end has a 20th-century loading door above which is a blocked casement, and two small casements above to the right. The east gable of the mill has two sashes. The rear elevation lacks a basement, and features a casement with a segmental head, a blocked keystoned opening, a casement, a half-round blocked opening above a blocked wheel opening, five casements above the wheel opening, and then the east wing has two casements, the mill has nine casements, three of them blocked, and the mill house has two casements. Above this, the mill has five smaller square casements. The mill is one of a group built by the Robinson family at Papplewick, Hucknall, and Bulwell, who were pioneers of industrial cotton spinning and the use of steam power in the area.