Tracey Mill

Tracey Mill

Tracey Mill is a water-powered corn mill with an attached miller's house, originating in the 17th century with later extensions and alterations. It stands to the south of the River Otter and is fed via a leat beginning approximately 470 metres to the east. The mill is constructed from rendered stone, with a brick and weatherboarded wheelhouse. The eastern extension to the mill combines stone and brick on the ground floor with timber framing and weatherboarding above. The miller's house adjoins the south elevation of the mill.

The mill is two storeys with a tall attic, topped by a pitched roof with a half hip on the north end. Irregular casement windows light each storey. The wheelhouse, built upon the north elevation, is an outshut constructed above the millrace with a brick side wall and weatherboarded end walls. A three-storey north-east extension has a pitched roof, stone masonry on the north elevation and brick on the south ground floor, with weatherboarding above. The south elevation features a doorway and window on the ground floor, and a taking-in door above.

The miller's house faces south onto the road as a three-bay building of two storeys with a pitched roof and brick stacks. The principal elevation is roughly symmetrical with a large modern porch at the centre of the ground floor. Tripartite casement windows flank the porch on both floors, with a double casement above it. The west return shows the gable end of the main range with a catslide roof and a north-west outshut containing the kitchen. The east return has a wide external stack with offsets, beside which are various openings where a large window has replaced a formerly used kitchen door.

The mill is arranged over three storeys. The loft forms the grain and bin floor and houses the sack hoist. Beneath it are the stone floor (the first floor) and the meal floor at ground level. The waterwheel is breast shot and 3 metres in diameter with 24 elm buckets. The wooden shaft has a primary gear wheel engaging with a secondary gear on a higher iron shaft, which drives a bevel wheel and the wallower. A great spur wheel then engages with the pair of stone nuts driving the millstones on the floor above. The gearing is housed within a Hurst frame, with dynamo equipment installed later. The main range has an internal timber frame with a pair of deep cross beams and posts. Various openings, chutes and features throughout relate to the transfer and processing of grain.

On the first floor are two pairs of French burr stones, one remaining in its tun. The upright shaft rises between the stones with a crown wheel above, which engages with two bevel wheels driving lay shafts and the sack hoist in the floor above. The loft floor is carried on the tie beams of two principal roof trusses. Grain was raised by hoist onto a gallery at the floor's centre, from which it was transferred to bins and thence to chutes for processing.

The eastern extension provided additional storage. Drylining and some subdivision on the first floor now provide bedrooms and bathrooms. Substantial floor frames with cross beams support posts. In the loft, the original gable truss survives, showing that the roof pitch of this section has been raised.

The miller's house follows a two-cell plan with a central stair hall. The ground floor contains a dining room and a lounge, which occupies the old kitchen. This room has two heavy transverse timber beams with deep chamfers and rough stepped stops, resting at their northern ends on a pair of reused posts with vacant mortises. Joists are closely spaced; some bear reeded mouldings. A blocked doorway in the north wall has a moulded lintel with a chamfered Tudor arch. A wide brick-lined fireplace has a chamfered bressumer and modern stove. A small cupboard to the right appears to have served as a coal store. The dining room has a single transverse beam, unchamfered and bearing lath marks from former ceiling. The stair has a slender newel, stick balusters and a moulded handrail; the first-floor landing balustrade has been replaced. The two-cell layout survives on the first floor with some inserted partitioning for en-suite bathrooms. Some four-panel doors, architraves and skirtings remain.

The single-storey workshop range to the east of the mill is excluded from the listing.