Town Mill

Town Mill

This mill building is constructed of chert rubble with red brick quoins and red brick to some window surrounds. The wall within the wheelpit to the south is rendered. The roof, which has a fairly shallow pitch and appears to have been replaced, is covered with slate and features a tall brick stack to the rear. All windows appear to have been replaced or removed.

The principal mill building has a rectangular footprint and was probably extended northward in the 19th century with a catslide roof. The mill is set back from King Street, with the wheel pit situated to the south. Access to the building is via a bridge to the right of the wheel pit, leading to the main door opening. A small subsidiary building is attached to the south-east.

The south elevation features a ground-floor doorway to the right, which has been altered in the 20th century with a roughly brick-framed opening and thin wooden lintel. Two square window openings have also been altered with new lintels and sills, and the area between them appears to have been partially rebuilt. The three first-floor windows are not positioned directly above the ground-floor openings, and the roof eaves now sit immediately above the window openings. The west gable end has a ground-floor window and another in the gable above, both with flat brick arches and both showing signs of alteration. A further window serves the extension in this elevation.

The 1898 overshot waterwheel remains in situ in the wheelpit. This is constructed of cast iron with an iron shaft and buckets and timber arms, embossed with the maker's name 'W. Mickelburgh'. At the west end of the wheelpit, the chert wall has been heightened in brick with an opening for the sluice, the gate for which survives though much decayed.

The interior has not been inspected, but photographic evidence indicates that although the building has been altered through conversion to residential use, much 19th-century internal machinery survives. Some machinery has been lost and there has been repair and renewal. The axle still links the waterwheel and internal pit wheel, and the gearing of applewood and iron appears intact on both ground and first floors, with the wallower, spur wheel, and crown wheel in place on the upright shaft.

The subsidiary building at the south-east corner is of two storeys, with the lower storey below the ground floor of the main building owing to changing ground level. The lower storey is of chert, as is the west gable end, but the upper storey of the street elevation is of painted brick. This building has a door opening with a brick arch at its eastern end, above which are two windows with new lintels.

A low wall separates the mill site from the street, with a gap allowing access. At the west end, a tall leat wall borders the street. At the east end, a plaque affixed to a raised section of wall provides information about the history of the site.