Newmills

Newmills is a house, likely originally a blowing house and stamping mill, probably dating from the early 16th century. It was extended around the early to mid-16th century and again in the late 16th century, with alterations occurring in the 17th century. The building was later divided into two cottages and reunited into a single house in the 20th century. It is constructed of rendered slate rubble, with some granite, and has a tile roof with gabled ends. A stone rubble gable end and a front lateral stack are also present.

The layout comprises a two-room plan with a central front entrance. The right-hand room features a large gable end stack, while the left-hand room is heated by a front lateral stack. A single-storey outshut is attached to the right-hand end. A projection at the rear of the left end was likely the original early 16th-century blowing house and stamping mill, featuring a cantilevered roof and a water wheel on the left side. An extension from the early to mid-16th century added a smelting hearth to the front wall. Later in the 16th century, the building was extended to its present dimensions, continuing its use as a mill. The outshut was originally two storeys and likely dates from this period. A 17th-century alteration involved a stack at the right-hand end, a central partition, and the addition of a first floor, signifying the building’s conversion to residential use.

The south front is asymmetrical with three windows, all of which are 20th-century casements, with attic windows incorporated into 20th-century half-dormers. A doorway is positioned to the right of the centre, leading to a 20th-century glazed door. A projecting lateral stack is located to the left of the centre. Two large buttresses flank the ends of the front, and two smaller buttresses are positioned in the centre, with slate weathering. A small, square blocked opening is on the right-hand side. The outshut, set back on the right end, is of painted stone rubble and features a plank door with a large timber lintel and a blocked first-floor window, reduced by a lowered lean-to corrugated iron roof. A projection extends from the right-hand end at the rear.

Inside, remnants of the original blowing house and stamping mill are visible in the rear left (northwest) wall, including a possible water wheel axle hole in the left (west) wall, and a hearth from the second phase in the front wall, with a granite lintel over the fireplace. A timber lintel with stopped chamfered spine beams with run-out stops is above what was originally a wide front doorway. The fireplace in the east end has an unchamfered granite lintel, an oven, and a large timber bressummer above, extending over a possible smoking chamber to the left; the bressummer is reused and features chamfered corners and mortices at one end. A niche (keep-hole) is located to the right of the fireplace. Only the foot of a principal rafter remains of the late 16th or early 17th-century roof structure, fixed to the front wall with a mortise for a threaded purlin.