Coombe Mill

SS 21 SW MORWENSTOW COOMBE

3/88 Coombe Mill 29.9.61

GV II*

Watermill. Datestone 1842. Rubblestone throughout with rubble quoins. Slate roof with gable ends and small brick chimney to right gable. 3-storey with part attic floor probably inserted. Regular 2-window front. 2 small 2-light timber C19 window frames with the outer light a casement, on each of 3 floors, except bottom right. Iron stanchion in each light, some lapped glass to each frame with slate sill under thin timber lintel. Stable plank door to right. Small opening adjacent left quoin with stone surround. 4 similar windows symmetrically placed in right gable end wall and 2 windows on left gable end wall above iron overshot water wheel fed from timber launder. Timber paddles. Low dwarf wall in front of waterwheel introduced since 1967. Plank door to second floor rear. Interior: Much of the machinery and gearing intact and well-preserved. Ground floor has cog pit raised on stone platform. Pit wheel with timber side-on cogs engages an iron waller revolving a vertical iron shaft. First floor has pair of French Buhr stones and pair of Cornish granite stones contained in hursts, surmounted by grain hoppers. Dressing and bolting machines on second floor were in working order in 1972. 3 King post trusses, ladder stairs to each floor and hinged trap doors in centre of floors one above the other. Slate ground floor. The mill is probably on the site of Stowe Manorial Mill (q.v. Stowe Barton). It was in commercial use in the 1940s. The mill is referred to as "Stow Mill" in Kingsley's Westward Ho! (1855); Rose Salterne is imprisoned in it by her father. D.E.Benney, An Introduction to Cornish Watermills (1972).

Listing NGR: SS2099711708