Polroad Cottages

These cottages comprise a water mill, millhouse, and adjoining house, built around the mid-17th century. The building is constructed from stone rubble and cob, with the left-hand range rendered. The left-hand range has a steeply pitched asbestos slate roof with deep overhanging eaves, gable ends, and brick end stacks. The lower range on the right has a rag slate roof with gable ends, a stone rubble stack on the left-hand gable end, a brick axial stack near the centre of the elevation, and a projecting truncated stone rubble stack on the rear elevation, aligned with the axial stack.

The left-hand house has a two-room and through-passage plan with a service room added to the rear in the 18th century, heated by a rear lateral stack. The house was remodelled and extended in 1947. It presents a nearly symmetrical three-window front. The ground floor features a wide 19th-century 28-pane sash window with crown glass and a chamfered lintel, a partially glazed 20th-century door in the centre, and an early 19th-century three-light casement to the right, with HL hinges. The first floor has three early 19th-century three-light casements with crown glass, all with HL hinges. Interior partitions have been removed, although the cill and ceiling beams on the left retain mortice holes indicating their former positions. The fireplace in the left-hand room has an altered lintel, and the fireplace in the right-hand room has a renewed brick pier. A clom oven is present. Ceiling beams in both rooms are chamfered with straight cut stops. The left-hand room has a slate flag floor, and the passage and right-hand room have a granite floor. A framed staircase was installed in the mid-20th century, and roof timbers were replaced during the same period.

The mill and millhouse, adjoining on the right-hand gable end, have now been converted into a single house. The mill wheel was likely originally on the right-hand gable end. The original plan arrangement is uncertain due to alterations. The left-hand room of the millhouse appears to have been heated by a gable end stack, and the central room heated by a projecting rear lateral stack, while the axial stack may have heated a first-floor chamber. This house has a two-storey, asymmetrical two-window front. The ground floor includes a late 19th/20th-century two-light casement on the left, a four-pane sash in a blocked entrance, a late 19th/early 20th-century two-light casement, a 20th-century plank door in a porch, and a late 19th/20th-century three-light casement to the right. The first floor features two late 19th/20th-century two-light casements. The rear elevation has a casement window with an 18th-century diagonal leaded lights with original glass, and another with square leaded lights. The interior was largely remodelled in the mid-20th century.