The Old Mill

The Old Mill is a former farmhouse, originally including a mill, dating to the early 17th century, with a mid-to-late 17th-century extension and later 19th and 20th-century modernisation. It is timber-framed. The ground floor is largely underbuilt with brick of various periods; some 17th-century English bond brick is in the service block, 19th-century Flemish bond brick on the south-east end of the main block, and original framing is exposed and nogged with 17th-century stretcher bond brick at the rear of the main block. The framing above is hung with peg-tile, and a brick stack with a staggered chimneyshaft rises from the roof, which is covered in peg-tile.

The house follows a basic L-shaped plan, facing north and east. The main block originally comprised two rooms, with an axial stack between them, serving back-to-back fireplaces. The left room was likely the parlour, and the other, the kitchen. A 19th-century projecting stairblock has replaced the original front lobby entrance. A secondary, 17th-century service block projects at a right angle from the south-east end. This one-room block has a 20th-century gable-end stack. It is thought to have been used as a mill, although structural evidence confirming this is lacking.

The house is two storeys high, with attics in the roof space, and has lean-to outshots on the right end of the main block and to the front to the right of the stairblock.

The exterior features a doorway in the stairblock, containing a late 19th-century four-panel door with a flat hood on raking struts. Windows are located alongside the door, and above it. Most windows on the south-east end and the rear are 20th-century casements with glazing bars, and a 20th-century French window is roughly central in the south-east end. The main block's roof is half-hipped at both ends, while the service block and stairblock roofs are gable-ended.

Inside, much of the 17th-century carpentry is well-preserved in both blocks. In the parlour, which is the larger room in the main block’s south-eastern side, and the chamber above, there are chamfered axial beams, with scroll stops in the chamber’s beam. Smaller rooms have plain joists. Wall framing is exposed on the first floor of the main block, featuring large curving braces and large scantling wall posts. The service wing’s frame is of lesser scantling and includes evidence of ribbon windows in the first-floor room. The roof of the main block is built with clasped side purlins, many common rafters remain original. Some rafters have an inconsistent relationship with the stack, and the north-west tie-beam has mortises towards the chimneybreast, suggesting the stack was originally smaller or possibly timber-framed.