Mill About 20 Metres South West Of West Ruthern Farmhouse

Watermill about 20 metres south-west of West Ruthern Farmhouse, Withiel. Mid 19th century. Grade II listed.

A watermill driving millstones for grain and a set of stamps for bone crushing. The mill house is built in slatestone rubble and cob with a slate roof, ridge tiles and gable ends.

The arrangement is exceptionally unusual. A leat runs from the west with a wooden launder driving an overshot wheel set in an open wheel pit. A narrow road separates the waterwheel from the mill house. The gearing runs under the road to the mill house, which has one floor at road level and a second floor at a lower level. The tailrace runs below the gearing level and emerges as a channel at the lower ground floor level on the outer side of the mill house. An open-fronted shed is attached to the rear of the mill house, also with two floors, and houses a subsidiary gearing system driving a set of three wooden stamps for bone crushing. The millstones are positioned on the upper ground floor level of the mill house with a chute below, and a second subsidiary set of gearing drives a wheel that would have had a belt drive, probably powering machinery on the lower ground floor level by the stamps.

The waterwheel is constructed in wood with cast iron shrouds and wooden floats, made by Harris of Wadebridge. Across the road in the open-fronted shed at upper ground floor level stands a pair of wheels set vertically (equivalent to a great spur wheel in this unusual arrangement), with a mainshaft driving the set of millstones at the same level inside the mill house. The millstones are in granite, housed in wooden casing, with a wooden hopper set on a wooden frame. The frame includes an inner frame with serrated edge, possibly a form of miller's damsel. Below the millstones is a sack-filling chute.

From the open-fronted shed at upper level, subsidiary gearing extends to the lower level, driving a wooden roller that operates the rising and falling of the stamps. The stamps are wooden posts with cast iron banding and stone bases. This is said to be the only set of wooden stamps surviving intact in Cornwall. On the lower ground floor level of the mill house is a further set of gearing with one wheel set horizontally and one vertically to increase speed and drive a cast iron wheel with wide flat rim, which would have operated a belt drive. The function of this machinery is unclear, but a hole through the wall to the lower level of the shed suggests it may have powered additional machinery there, possibly for cider-making. The gearing wheels rest on a granite plinth.

The mill house has a stable door on the road side and a door at lower ground floor level on the outer side, with an upper level loading door showing brick repair work. A single-storey lean-to in cob is positioned to the right with a door. The open-fronted shed housing the stamps is open-fronted on the road side at the upper level, with a door at the lower level on the outer side.

The machinery is in unusually good condition, having been restored to full working order circa 1960, though the water supply has since dried up. The combination of grinding and crushing functions, and the horizontal arrangement of most machinery on one level, is exceptional. This arrangement avoids the need for the usual three-storey mill building and takes advantage of the drop in ground level between the waterwheel and the lower ground floor of the mill house.