Powdermill House Powdermill Hotel Formerly Listed As Powdermill House

TQ 71 SW 1917/29/29 13-MAY-87

BATTLE POWDERMILL LANE POWDERMILL HOUSE Powdermill Hotel (Formerly listed as: POWDERMILL LANE POWDERMILL HOUSE POWDERMILL HOUSE)

II

House at gunpowder works, now hotel. c1794, converted to hotel c1980. Painted brick with brick external stacks and tiled hipped roof.

PLAN: Complex L-shaped plan with a central entrance stair hall linking double-depth ranges either side, the right-hand one extends back with single-storey ranges (former process buildings) within re-entrant.

EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; 2:1:3 fenestration to ground floor of front with hipped block to left of wider central block, linked by one-window porch to right-hand block. Mid-Georgian style. Near symmetrical front has 6/6-pane sash over parapeted central entrance with flat roof, a panelled door with margin lights under a deep canopy on columns, 6/9-pane ground-floor and 6/6-pane first-floor hornless sashes in flush frames, with an oculus on the first floor to the left of the central window. Left-hand side range has a single window facing front. Right-hand wing extends back, with 4 windows to rear of late-C20 extension; a series of narrow single-storey ranges with hipped roofs extend out from both sides at the rear.

INTERIOR: Altered, the hall contains a stair with stick balusters.

HISTORY: The Battle gunpowder mill operated from the late C17 until 1876, the middle of three on the river Asten.

Powdermill House, situated below the mill dam, was rebuilt after an explosion in 1796. It contained the proprietor's residence and various process buildings, which probably included the single-storey ranges at the rear. The apparent concentration of processes in one large structure is unique in the gunpowder industry, the buildings of which were usually highly dispersed in single-process structures. It is not clear how the house is related to the water-powered activities of the works which would have been located below the mill pond.

(Blackman, H, 'The Story of the Old Gunpowder Works at Battle', Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol 4, pp 109-22, 1923; Crocker, G, Gunpowder Mills Gazetteer, 1988)

Listing NGR: TQ7421514610