Hyde Mill Granary And Store (That Part In Wheathampstead)

Water-powered corn mill with attached granary and store, incorporating the water wheel, milling machinery, and two steam engines. Built in the late 19th century with minor 20th-century alterations. The building is constructed of red brick with horizontal weather-boarding, beneath Welsh slated roof coverings.

The structure forms an L-shaped range with an attached range to the east, adjoining Hyde Mill Farmhouse (which lies in Bedfordshire). The mill store extends southwards from the west end of the granary. The River Lea waterway passes beneath the mill building.

The south elevation comprises a stepped range with the mill to the east, rising two storeys with lofts across four bays. A projecting flat-roofed lucarne projects to the attic level above stacked ground and first floor doors on the right-hand side. An 8-pane window stands to the right of the ground floor door, and to the left are two doorways (one blocked) and a 4-pane window, all beneath shallow segmental brick arches. The first floor has windows of various patterns. A slated lucarne projects from the roof slope. The lower three-bay granary to the west features horizontal weather-boarding to the upper floor and a slated lucarne to the centre, positioned above ground and first floor doorways. The upper floor contains a small-paned 2-light window. A 2-light ground floor window with a 20th-century lean-to stands to the left.

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

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

The interior of the mill is fully equipped with a water wheel, primary and secondary drives, millstones, grain dressing machinery, delivery chutes, grain bins, a sack hoist and hoist drives, line shafting and drive wheels for belt drive. Timber floors throughout are of heavy section with spine beams and vertical posts supporting exposed joists. Timber stairs connect the floors to attic level. Common rafter roof is supported by single purlins. Built-in grain bins occupy the attic floor, alongside a drive wheel, shafting and belt drive for the sack hoist. Grain chutes descend to the stone floor below, where three pairs of millstones are driven by bevel gearing from the main horizontal gear wheel set on a vertical metal drive shaft rising from the ground floor. Ancillary drives feed the adjacent dressing machinery from wooden chutes above. The ground floor wheelpit contains an in-situ metal-framed water wheel, 12 feet in diameter and 7 feet wide. It is a low-breast type wheel with added curved buckets, with 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 two 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. The apexes are carried in metal shoes, linked to the tie beams by metal tension-rods.

The mill remained in production until 1995 and had been partially adapted for roller milling in the 1920s. The roller machinery, since removed, was housed in the granary. This is a remarkably complete example of a late 19th-century water-powered corn mill, retaining fully working interior fittings and evidence for two types of motive power designed to work together. The mill, granary and store form a group with the attached farmhouse, the sluice gate to the north of the mill and an adjacent range of farm buildings including the mill office.