Mill House, mill building and bakehouse

Mill House, Mill Building and Bakehouse

A house, water-powered corn mill and bakehouse, all apparently of 18th-century date.

The complex is built on the north side of Clee Brook. The buildings are constructed of roughly coursed red sandstone, with weatherboarding to the agricultural buildings adjoining the house. The house and mill have clay-tile roofs, while the bakehouse has a slate roof.

The house and bakehouse are rectangular in plan, aligned north-west to south-east with their south-east gables facing the road and forming a gateway to the complex. The mill building is aligned more closely to east-west, positioned around 10 metres north-west of the house. The millpond, now dry, is visible as an earthwork north and east of the mill.

HOUSE

The house is a single-storey building with cellar and attic, built into the bank on its north-east side so that the cellar is partially above ground to the front. The front elevation faces south-west. A barn and pigsty abut the north-west gable end; a straight joint between these and the house indicates they are a later addition. The barn and house share a pitched roof with an unbroken ridge line, though the pigsty is lower and set back from the front line.

The barn is stone-built but has a weatherboarded front with timber plank doors. At ground floor level, the front of the house features a central door with a canopy porch, with a stair-light immediately to the south-east. The door and stair-light are flanked by two three-light casement windows with shallow arched brick lintels laid in a single course with rowlock edges facing. Below ground floor level is an off-centre cellar door, with steps up to the front door continuing as a raised path along the front of the house and attached agricultural buildings. The rear elevation has a central door flanked by two windows at ground floor level. A brick chimney stack stands on the solid south-east gable, and a large stack with stone lower and brick upper courses is positioned on the rear elevation. The attic has two later gabled brick dormer windows to the front above the eaves line, aligned with the ground floor casements, and a single cat-slide dormer on the rear roof slope.

The house follows a three-bay plan with central hallway and staircase. The living room and kitchen ceilings have chamfered beams, with exposed joists in the kitchen. A large timber bressummer spans above the bricked-up fireplace in the kitchen. The living room contains a 20th-century brick fireplace, with a further 20th-century fireplace in one of the bedrooms. The cellar is reported to retain its original flagstones and a salting bench.

MILL BUILDING

The mill building rises two storeys with attic under a pitched roof, dug into the steep bank to the north with no openings on that side. The east elevation has a ground floor door, a blocked first floor opening, and a casement attic window. A single-storey lean-to on the south elevation has a window above it at first floor level. The water wheel was mounted on the west side but no longer survives.

Photographs show details of wooden machinery including the top of an upright shaft with crown wheel and pinion, and a large horizontal toothed wheel.

BAKEHOUSE

The bakehouse is a low single-storey building with pitched roof. A stone chimney stack stands at its south-east gable end. The north-east facing elevation has a central door and single window. Photographs show a large bread oven within.