Mill House

Mill House

This is a farmhouse of late 16th-century date, altered and extended in the early-to-mid 17th century, late 17th century and 18th century, with further alterations made in the 19th to 21st centuries.

The building is constructed of local limestone with oak and elm floor and roof structures. Window frames are timber. The elevations and stacks are rendered with some brick infill, and the roofs are covered in recently laid clay pantiles.

The plan is multi-phase and U-shaped. The earliest part is probably the north end, which is of two storeys with part of the first-floor structure at the north-east end removed in 2016. A small first-floor chamber to the east is floored and was formerly accessed by a winder stair in the north wall. The passage and two bays to the south, with inglenook, may be a slightly later phase. The south end of the building and the attached early 17th-century cross wing to the south-east are two storeys plus attic. Along the north flank is a single-storey outshut converted to a garage, with other single-storey 19th-century additions to the rear and south flank.

The principal elevation is rendered and faces north-west. The two irregular bays to the left are of two storeys, and the two bays to the right are of two storeys plus attic with openings progressively smaller to each floor. To the second bay from the left is a door with a modern pitched-roofed porch and an eight-light 16th/17th-century timber window to the centre of the ground floor, featuring chamfered mullions and transoms. Above right is a 16th/17th-century timber tripartite window with ovolo mouldings, mullions and transoms. The window to the left is a 19th or 20th-century casement. There are ovolo windows to the first floor of the two right-hand bays, with central lights having metal casements. The two large window openings to the ground floor have later frames with slender glazing bars. The attic casements are 19th century or later. There are three ridge stacks, all rendered with two courses of red brick to the top.

Attached to the north flank is a mid-19th-century single-storey stone-built outshut, converted to a garage with a door facing west, featuring a shallow-pitch pantile roof and coursed stone north wall. It extends east to adjoin single-storey outbuildings of earlier date built of local stone that wrap around to the rear of the main farmhouse. The rear of the main range has a projecting 16th/17th-century wing to the right, an early 17th-century two-storey plus attic cross wing to the left, and later infill with an eclectic range of roof types and heights in between. The right wing has a lower two-storey pitched roof adjoining the main range, which has been extended and splayed as part of later lower-height infill. In the gable end is a casement to each floor. There are first-floor openings to the rear wall of the main range, and that to the left, close to the junction with the cross wing, is a 16th/17th-century single-light opening with a stanchion and metal casement. At attic level in the flank of the wing facing north is an ovolo timber casement that may be relocated from a sealed stair window by the inglenook in the north end wall of the main range. The other elevations of the 17th-century cross wing have been modified in the 20th century with frames of this period. The roof has a rendered end stack. Attached to the south flank of the main range is a single-storey outshut of mid-19th-century origin but extended and altered.

The interior of the main range has exposed first-floor structure with deep chamfered 17th-century cross beams with run-out stops or scroll stops and substantial square-profile joists. The joists in the main range have been partially removed, and the cross beam at the south-west end was removed and replaced with an iron-strapped transverse timber in the 19th century. The floor structures of the south bays were formerly covered in decorative lime plaster, which survives on two beams. That to the first-floor dining chamber survives best with thistle and other floreate designs. That to the ground floor has been partially incorporated into a later inserted inglenook and has been painted over, but rose emblems are clearly visible. The inglenook also has a chamfered bressumer and stands to the south of the passage. Another inglenook is at the north-west end of the building, also incorporating the cross beam with a bressumer inserted below it. At the east end, the beam has a carved door head to a former winder stair with a sealed window to the first-floor wall, with a timber lintel and cill still in place. Next to the top of the former stair is a late 16th/early 17th-century door with four-centred arch to a small first-floor chamber with exposed purlins and timber lintel to the gable window. There is another four-centred arch doorway in the south wall of the main room, above another stop-chamfered cross beam that is embedded in the north side of the central inglenook and supports an inserted timber winder stair. A number of the principal beams in the main range have had repair work. The second-floor structure in the south bays has an embedded truncated former truss and tie beam from an earlier roof structure. The roofs are largely 18th and 19th-century work, although the principal rafters, diagonal ridge piece, some purlins and some common rafters may be early 17th-century or earlier, and reused or in situ. The attic roof at the south end has staggered butt purlins with tusk tenons and large timber pegs. The floor is very uneven, possibly due to having carried weaving looms in the past.

The stonework of the south-east end cross wing is not engaged with the main range, indicating that it is of a different phase. However, its timber floor structure appears to be of 17th-century date and is more decorative than that in the main range. Fragments of a decorative plaster scheme remain just above first-floor level in the south wall, possibly of early 17th-century date. The north and east ends of the building have been altered with a wide inserted stack and widened openings. The roof has chamfered purlins, rough-hewn common rafters and a diagonal ridge piece, some indicating a pre-17th-century date, but the principal rafters and collars are of 19th-century date. A two-light timber mullion casement in the north wall of the attic has ovolo mouldings and early 17th-century fitments.

There are a number of 17th-century doors and cupboards across the building with fitments and hinges. Some doors were unhinged in 2016. There are also further fireplaces and openings with timber lintels, 17th/18th-century elm floorboards, and the attic stair is probably of 18th-century date. The outbuildings were not inspected.