Heskyn Mill And Chimney

A corn mill, later adapted as a restaurant, dating to the early to mid-19th century with subsequent alterations. The building is constructed of slatestone rubble with a slate roof featuring gable ends and ridge tiles. The plan is rectangular, with water power derived from a leat approaching from the north west (rear left). The mill incorporates wheel pits on both sides, with the leat circulating around the rear of the building to power two water wheels. A later 19th-century engine house is situated on the left side, housing a steam engine and associated gearing to provide subsidiary power. A freestanding chimney stands to the rear left. Heskyn Mill is of particular interest due to its dual power source and the remarkable completeness of its internal machinery; the conversion into a restaurant has resulted in minimal alterations.

The exterior is two storeys with a loft, featuring a three-window front. All windows are 20th century replacements. The ground floor has three-light casements with timber lintels on the right and left sides, with a central 20th-century door also under a timber lintel. The first floor has two three-light casements and a central two-light casement, all with timber lintels. The right side features a three-light casement at first floor and to the loft, and a lean-to addition of two storeys with a 20th-century glazed door to the side. The wheel pits contain cast iron waterwheels and watershafts, with some wooden floats and a cast iron shroud remaining. Elements of a wooden launder are visible; both wheels are overshot. To the left of the wheel pit is a narrow two-storey building with a two-light casement in the front gable end, which housed gearing machinery from the steam engine to the rear. The left side also has a 20th-century casement at first-floor and loft level. The engine house has a single light at ground floor. Approximately 5 metres from the engine house stands a freestanding, tapered chimney of circular plan constructed from rubble with a wide brick cornice.

The interior includes pit wheels, wallowers, and a great spur wheel on the spout floor, with two subsidiary drives at each end powering two sets of stones on the stone floor. On the stone floor, the wooden tuns, used as hoppers, remain in place, with others retained in an outbuilding on site. The stones to the right are likely Buhrstones, lightly cemented with plaster of Paris and bound with iron hoops. A pulley wheel is located in the loft. Heskyn Mill is remarkably complete. It is said that it replaced Cutcrew Mill as the corn mill for the Port Eliot estate when Cutcrew was converted to a sawmill.