Hyde Mill (Including Attached Granary And Store)

Hyde Mill (including attached granary and store)

A water-powered corn mill with attached granary and store, dating from the late 19th century with minor 20th-century alterations. The building is constructed of red brick with horizontal weather-boarding beneath Welsh slate roof coverings.

The mill comprises an L-shaped range attached to Hyde Mill Farmhouse, with the River Lea passing beneath the building through a mill race. The front (south) elevation presents a stepped range with the mill to the east, rising 2 storeys with lofts and spanning 4 bays. A projecting flat-roofed Lacombe projects above stacked ground and first-floor doors on the right-hand side. Ground-floor fenestration includes an 8-pane window to the right of the door, 2 doorways (one blocked) and a 4-pane window to the left, all set beneath shallow segmental brick arches. The first floor has windows of various patterns. A slated Lacombe projects from the roof slope. The lower 3-bay granary to the west features horizontal weather-boarding to the upper floor and a slated Lacombe above ground and first-floor doorways. The upper floor has a small-paned 2-light window, and the ground floor a 2-light window with a 20th-century lean-to to the left.

The granary store extends southwards from the west end of the granary with a hipped end. It comprises 3 bays in 2 storeys, with weather-boarded upper floor, 3 two-light ground-floor windows, 2 two-light small-paned upper-floor openings, and stacked doorways to the centre.

The rear (north) elevation features a deep catslide roof to the left-hand bay. The mill race enters through an arched opening to the centre bay, above which a floor platform of a former workshop retains in-situ line shafting, a drive wheel for belting and a lathe. A 3-light first-floor window sits above an access doorway to the mill wheelpit. A single-storey lean-to addition spans the east end bay of the mill and extends almost the full length of the lower granary range, housing 2 horizontal steam engines with 2 doorways and 2 two-light windows. Above, the granary rear wall has 2 eaves-level windows, with a 20th-century lean-to against the end wall.

The mill interior is fully equipped with a metal-framed water wheel (12 feet in diameter and 7 feet wide), primary and secondary drives, millstones, grain dressing machinery, delivery chutes, grain bins, a sack hoist and hoist drives, line shafting and drive wheels. Heavy timber floors throughout feature spine beams and vertical posts supporting exposed joists. Timber stairs connect floors to attic level. The common rafter roof is supported by a single purlin. Built-in grain bins occupy the attic floor with a drive wheel, shafting and belt drive for the sack hoist. Grain chutes descend to the stone floor below, with 3 pairs of millstones driven by bevel gearing from a main horizontal gear wheel set on a vertical metal drive shaft. The water wheel is a low-breast type with added curved buckets, the water supply controlled by a double rack-and-pinion shuttle. A vertical metal gear wheel attached to the water wheel shaft drives spur gearing on an upright shaft mounted on an Armfield arch. The rear lean-to contains 2 small horizontal steam engines manufactured by N. Varty of Royston, Cambridgeshire.

The granary and store feature double-purlin roof structures supported by tie beams, V-struts and principal rafters, with apexes carried in metal shoes linked to the tie beams by metal tension rods.

The mill remained in production until 1995. It had been partially adapted for roller milling in the 1920s, with the roller machinery (since removed) originally housed in the granary. The mill, granary and store form a group with the attached farmhouse and neighbouring farm buildings including a sluice gate to the north and mill office, all listed separately.