Sopwell Mill

Sopwell Mill is a former water-powered corn mill and attached dwelling, dating from the mid-to-late 19th century, with an extension built around 1900 and minor 20th-century alterations. It is constructed of buff-brown brick with red brick detailing, featuring end and ridge stacks with corbelled caps, and has Welsh slate roof coverings.

The building is arranged linearly, incorporating the mill, the mill house, and a water course with a wheelpit to the east of the site. The north elevation presents a three-bay, three-storey mill to the east, and a three-bay, two-storey house to the west. The mill section has a gabled sack hoist canopy over the centre bay, above a first-floor doorway and a ground-floor double door. Red brick detailing marks the hoist canopy and window levels. The flanking bays have windows with metal frames and 4x4 panes set beneath shallow segmental arches. A single-storeyed extension projects northwards from the east side of the mill. The house has a central doorway with a simple boarded door, sheltered by a bracketed hood. Three-light transomed windows with timber casements flank the doorway; the ground-floor windows are beneath shallow segmental arches, while the first-floor windows feature stone heads above the eaves line, set within gabled sections with plain barge boards. An off-centre ridge stack is positioned on the right side.

The rear elevation has a tall central doorway to the mill, flanked by windows. There are three first-floor windows, and a smaller window in the centre of the upper floor. A single-storey lean-to addition with replacement windows is visible on the rear of the house.

The east side elevation features a tall gable with two low windows in the upper section and a single first-floor opening. A wide, low breast water wheel with socketed cast iron frames and sheet metal buckets is set against the ground-floor wall, alongside a rack and pinion gear connected to a timber sluice gateway on the north side of the wheelpit.

Inside the mill, late 19th-century tension-braced metal roof trusses support a single purlin roof. Timber floors are now supported by metal beams on shallow side wall piers. The first floor retains a stone floor and three pairs of stones, although associated machinery is absent. A steep open tread stair is located within boarded compartments at the west end of the mill. The ground floor contains primary and secondary drives, enclosed by a timber screen. A metal gear wheel connected to the water wheel shaft engages bevel gearing, driving a secondary shaft with further bevel gearing, which in turn provides power for the vertical shafts driving the stones above. The house interior features panelled doors, moulded architraves, and a simple stick baluster stair.

Sopwell Mill is a largely complete example of a mid-19th-century water-powered corn mill with an attached dwelling, retaining its water wheel and primary and secondary drive machinery.