Cosford Mill

Cosford Mill is a mill-house and mill complex dating back to approximately 1580. A two-bay smoke bay house was altered in the late 18th century, and a late 17th or early 18th century mill was heightened in the early 19th century.

The house is timber-framed with some wall frame visible, retaining three original diamond mullioned casement windows. The ground floor is diaper brickwork, and the first floor is infilled with stretcher bond brick. It has a tiled roof with a tall brick chimneystack. A 19th-century three-light casement window with leaded lights is present. The right end was heightened in the 18th century with diaper Flemish brickwork and a modillion cornice. A 19th-century diamond mullioned window is fitted on pintle hinges, and a brick and tiled gabled porch dates to the 19th century. The right side elevation has an external brick stack and one casement, while the rear elevation has three casements and a hipped roof.

The attached mill, likely late 17th century, was also heightened in the early 19th century. The lower two floors are of Bargate stone rubble with brick dressings, heightened in diaper brickwork. It has a half-hipped tiled roof with a weatherboarded gable, featuring a small three-light window and a hoist door. A three-light mullion obscures a cambered opening. The ground floor contains one cambered opening and one bricked-in cambered opening. The right side has a blocked cambered opening to the first floor, a hoist opening with a plank door, and a cambered opening to the ground floor. A plinth is present. The mill originally housed an overshot water wheel.

Inside the house, an early 17th-century open fireplace with a four-centred brick arch and exposed beams, including a chamfered spine beam with run-out stops, remains. The first floor retains its bay port for the smoke bay, with only sooted rafters visible. It features a clasped purlin roof. The mill retains a significant amount of its original machinery and gearing, along with a staggered butt purlin roof.

The mill was first recorded to be owned by Richard Shudd in 1536.