Great Bardfield watermill and bridge

Great Bardfield watermill and bridge

The remains of a watermill built in brick with wrought and cast-iron machinery, standing to approximately full height. The associated bridge is constructed of brick with a flint parapet.

The mill is rectangular in plan, oriented north to south, spanning the mill race. Internally, it is divided by a water wheel pit in the centre, with a pit wheel chamber to the south and a pair of spillways to the north. The external brick plinth walls and internal sleeper walls are from a former timber-framed structure. A bridge over the tail race projects from the mill and forms its eastern wall.

The undershot waterwheel occupies the centre, with the pit wheel chamber situated to its south. The waterwheel chamber walls have been largely removed, though the southern wall stands to part of its original height. A spillway runs beside the water wheel on its north side. The waterwheel itself is of wrought iron with cast iron shrouds and metal buckets. The wheel is damaged, with part of the shrouds and most of the buckets lost. The cast iron pit wheel remains in situ, supported by some timber beams. To the north of the spillway is a second spillway, with evidence of its southern side having been adapted to house a turbine. Brickwork has been removed from the upstream entrance to the turbine chamber along with the sluice gate, probably following a fire. The spur wheel is in situ, mounted on a wrought iron shaft with a supporting timber beam. A plate with holding-down bolts, possibly part of the turbine mounting, is situated in the bottom of the chamber.

The northern wall of the mill is built into the side of the bridge and returns to form the eastern wall. This eastern plinth wall was raised in the late 20th century to form a brick parapet for the bridge. A late 20th-century timber footbridge crosses the mill race on the line of the western wall of the mill, fitted with tubular steel handrails and incorporating a sluice gate for the spillway beside the water wheel. The southern wall of the mill has been extended in the late 20th century with a low brick wall forming a raised planter bed, which also continues along the south side of the mill race to form a flood wall between it and the mill house. Original retaining walls exist on both banks of the headrace, reinforced with concrete in the late 20th century.

The bridge has two arched openings. Water from both the waterwheel and the adjacent spillway discharges under the main segmental arch, which has been repaired in reinforced concrete on its western side in the late 20th century. Water from the turbine chamber discharges through a smaller arch to the north. The eastern parapet is built in random flint rubble with brick margins and one larger brick panel. It returns to form a pier for a field gate across the roadway at its northern end and terminates in a small brick pier at its southern end. Brick retaining walls project from both the north and south ends of the bridge along the sides of the downstream mill pond. At its end the southern wall curves westward to form the side of a trackway down to the pond.