Overshot Mill

Overshot Mill is a water mill that has been converted into a house, dating from the 18th century. The first storey is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond, while the rest of the building is timber framed and weatherboarded, topped with a roof of handmade red clay plain tiles. The mill is oriented northwest to southeast, featuring a wheelpit at the southeast end and a one-and-a-half storey lean-to extension. At the northwest end, there is an attached early 19th-century granary.

The building stands three storeys high with attics, while the granary is a single storey. The ground floor includes two 19th-century casement windows, two plain boarded doors, and a sliding vehicle door to the extension, which is also boarded. On the first floor, there is one 19th-century casement and two 20th-century casements, along with a halved loading door that has a half-glazed 20th-century door inside. The second floor features one 20th-century casement window. The attic has a gambrel lucam supported by two curved braces, with a plain 20th-century window. The roof is half-hipped at both ends.

The granary is raised on brick piers and has a low-pitched pyramidal roof covered with slate. A cast iron pulley projects from the rear of the mill. The waterwheel, which originally had a diameter of 16 feet (4.87 meters), was exceptional for Essex and operated with a fall of 17 feet (5.18 meters). The mill was originally built for fulling in 1640 but was converted or rebuilt as a corn mill in the late 18th century. It ground cereals on a small scale for a wholefood business until 1944 and also powered a dynamo. Around 1966, the original waterwheel was replaced by a turbine made by Gilbert Gilkes and Gordon, which drives a 4 kW alternator. The mill retains its pit wheel, wallower, wooden vertical shaft, wood-cogged crown pinion, and two pairs of Dell stones.