Attached Farmbuildings At Coley Farm, Including Stables, Cart Sheds, Mill, Malthouse And Kiln

Attached Farmbuildings at Coley Farm

This is a planned model farmstead from the 1830s and 1840s, arranged around a cobbled yard. Built from red brick with slate roofs, it comprises stables, cart sheds, threshing barns, an aisled cow shed (listed separately), a malthouse, kiln, and water mill. The complex was disused at the time of inspection in August 2003.

The stable range fronts the road with a canted corner, built in modified Flemish bond with a dentil eaves course. It features king post timber trusses with raking struts and double purlins, supporting hipped slate roofs. Brick piers with concrete block infill support the structure. The corner range connects via a hipped roof structure to a short return with an arched opening dressed in stone, then to an additional stabling range with a stable door to the east and paired doors in the gable facing the cobbled yard to the south. Several openings line the left side, each with segmental heads and stone banded dressings. The floor is laid with heavy chamfered beams and joists, and the roof is carried on king post timber trusses with raking struts and double purlins.

The cart shed, positioned perpendicular to the west, is open to the east onto the cobbled yard. Two brick piers with flat stone capitals support the structure, which is spanned by four king post timber trusses with raking struts and double purlins. A hipped return to the south connects it with the mill.

The mill is a tall covered structure with a single king post timber truss, open below. It connects a small range to the north (positioned to the rear of the cart shed) that features paired wide openings under segmental heads, to the main mill to the south. The main mill is entered through a full-height narrow opening with a segmental arched head and stone dressings. Within this space is a tall room topped by a similar king post truss roof, with a blocked tall arched opening to the opposite wall. To the east and in a parallel range to the south stands a tall range with a full-height opening to the yard and a high circular window to the south wall. The floor contains surviving line shafting and watermill machinery, with an attic space that features a roof structure to accommodate a central aisle. A metal-bladed water mill survives in place. To the east of this is a lower gabled range with paired openings to the north. A parallel range to the rear has a circular opening to the gable and multiple ground and first-floor openings to the south side, including a circular window, doors with segmental arched lintels and stone quoins, and first-floor windows with stone cills.

The malthouse and kiln are attached to the southwest corner of the mill. The two-storey malthouse runs southward, with a slightly taller single-bay kiln at its end. Small paned square windows at ground and first floors have shallow segmental heads and stone cills. The malthouse is floored with king post timber trusses.

During the 1800-1840 period, mechanisation using horse, water, or steam power became increasingly common. Coley Mill represents a fine example of a well-equipped early-19th-century model farm with mechanised milling. The mill is marked on the first Ordnance Survey map for Staffordshire, surveyed in 1833-34, and appears on the 1839 Tithe Map of Gnosall, along with the rick yard, barn, hovel, house, and garden. The present corn mill is dated 1842, although a water mill has occupied this site since the 16th century.

The farmstead survives mostly unaltered, including its internal machinery, and contributes significantly to our understanding of these building types nationally.