Maplehurst Mill

Maplehurst Mill is a house with an attached water mill, dating back to the 17th century, with possible earlier origins, and later alterations and additions. A west range of the mill was built in 1756, and an east range in the mid-18th century, wrapping around part of the north gable end of the 18th-century section. The house, likely originally free-standing, adjoins the south gable end of the 19th-century range and faces west.

The house’s west elevation is red brick in Flemish bond, with the first floor of the south gable end tile-hung. It has a plain tile roof and a fluted red and grey brick stack near the center. The front has a regular three-window arrangement with two recessed tripartite sashes and a central 2-light casement. Ground-floor windows are tripartite sashes with cambered heads, and there’s a central boarded door. A red and grey brick and tile-hung rear return wing is on the right, with a shorter weatherboarded gabled rear wing to the left. The interior of the house was not inspected.

The 18th-century mill range is red and grey brick in English bond, with weatherboarded gables and a plain tile roof. It is two storeys and an attic, with a half-hipped gambrel roof. It retains a 2-light casement to each gable end, a stable door with a segmental head to the north end of the west elevation, and a boarded door to the south gable end. Dated bricks read "HB 1756 IL" to the north and "DP 1756" to the south. An undershot waterwheel is positioned at the north gable end, with a sluice to the west. The 19th-century range is timber-framed, weatherboarded, and has a slate roof. It is three storeys high, with a hipped roof and north gable-end loading doors on each floor. It has two 2-light casements on the second floor to the east side, and three to each of the ground and first floors.

Inside the old mill, a beam is carved with the letters "S" and "I" separated by a line, marking the parish boundary between Staplehurst (Maidstone District) and Frittenden. The mill machinery, of various 18th to early 20th-century dates, remains largely complete, although the water-driven mechanism is no longer in operation. The waterwheel may be of the relatively unusual pitch back type. Located to the south-east is the older mill house, which is separately described and fully within Frittenden Civil Parish.