Overshot Mill

TL 82 NE COLNE ENGAINE MILL LANE (north side)

6/22 Overshot Mill 21.6.62

• II

Water mill, now a house. C18. First storey of red brick in Flemish bond, remainder timber framed and weatherboarded, roofed with handmade red clay plain tiles. Aligned NW-SE, with wheelpit at SE end, and 1 1/2 storey lean-to extension beyond; attached early C19 granary at NW end. 3 storeys and attics; granary of one storey. Ground floor, 2 C19 casements and 2 plain boarded doors, sliding vehicle door to extension, also boarded. First floor, one C19 and 2 C20 casements; halved loading door, with half-glazed C20 door inside. Second floor, one C20 casement. Gambrel lucam at attic floor on 2 curved braces, with C20 plain window. Roof half-hipped at both ends. Granary raised on brick piers, with low-pitched pyramidal roof of slate. A cast iron pulley projects from the rear. The fall is 17 feet (5.18 m) and the original overshot wheel of diameter 16 feet (4.87 m) was exceptional in Essex. The mill was originally built for fulling in 1640, but converted or rebuilt as a corn mill in the late C18. It ground cereals on a small scale in connection with a wholefood business until 1944, and also powered a dynamo. About 1966 the waterwheel was replaced by a turbine, made by Gilbert Gilkes and Gordon, driving a 4 kw alternator. Retains the pit wheel, wallower, wooden vertical shaft, wood-cogged crown pinion and 2 pairs of Dell stones (Colne Engaine, the Story of an Essex Parish, 1975, 18-19, and H. Benham, Some Essex Water Mills, 1976, 79-80).

Listing NGR: TL8604629907