Cuttle Mill

STEEPLE ASTON SP42NE 2/96 Cuttle Mill 08/12/55 GV II*

Watermill and millhouse, now house. Late C17/early C18, altered c.1738 by William Kent. Coursed squared marlstone with wooden lintels; Stonesfield-slate roof with stone and brick stacks. 3-unit plan plus mill in a single range, with a short added wing in Gothick style. 2 storeys. 4-window front of main range has the entrance in bay 2 with flanking 3-light casements, and at first floor has casements of 2, 2, 3 and 2 lights; bay 4 has a second inserted entrance and a 2-light casement adjoining the projecting wing. Range extends slightly beyond the wing with a further tall opening, now a window. Stepped gable of wing has crocketed corner pinnacles plus 2 intermediate re-set pinnacles, and contains a quatrefoil window above a tall ogee-headed window below which is a rebuilt stone stair; rubble flying buttresses flanking the gable wall are now topped by large rubble pinnacles, but originally carried the 2 crocketed pinnacles re-set on the gable. Roof of main range has a brick stack to the left gable, plus a large central stone stack. Interior: open fireplace; stop-chamfered beam. Re-modelled by Kent to form "The Temple of the Mill" in the principal view from Rousham Park; one of the earliest examples of a picturesque eyecatcher. (Rousham Park is included in the H.B.M.C. Register of Parks and Gardens at Grade I; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire: p745; VCH: Oxfordshire: Vol XI, p38; M. Jourdain, The Work of William Kent, 1948, p81)

Listing NGR: SP4801125114