Blenches Mill At Blenches Mill Farm

Blenches Mill at Blenches Mill Farm is a water grist mill built around 1835, likely for the Heywood Park estate. The mill is constructed of red brick in English garden wall bond, featuring decorative diapering under the eaves at the front, along with a stone stringcourse and window frames. It has a gable-ended roof that has been re-clad in asbestos and corrugated iron sheets.

The mill has a rectangular plan without internal partitions, with the waterwheel pit and machinery located at the north end. It stands three storeys tall and has a symmetrical five-bay west front. This front includes a stone stringcourse at the first floor level, slightly chamfered two-light stone mullion window frames with iron casements, a central doorway, and a loading door above on the first floor. The second floor is blind at the front, featuring small diamond patterns made of blue brick headers under the eaves. The end gables have similar three-light windows with a diamond pattern of old bottle ends in the apex above, and there is one two-light stone mullion window at the rear. A lean-to wheel-pit house is attached to the north end, while a later stable is connected to the south end.

Inside, the overshot wheel is missing, but the wheel shaft remains. The mill machinery is largely intact, featuring a two-step spurwheel under-drive machinery with a shaft that extends through the stone floor for secondary drive take-offs. Although the crown-wheel and secondary gearing are missing, the sack-hoist on the bin floor above is still present. The timber hurst-frame and principal gearing are intact, including a cast-iron pit-wheel with wooden cogs and cast-iron spur-wheels. The bin floor has a gallery supported on the tie-beams of the roof, which features a five-bay tie-beam structure with tenoned staggered purlins and intact common rafters with a ridgeboard. One of the purlins is inscribed with the names J.T. Paige and the years 1844 and 1864, along with W.W.