Countess Wear Paper Mill

Paper mill on Mill Lane at Countess Wear. Disused and in poor condition at the time of survey. Probably early 19th century.

The building is constructed of brick laid in English bond with a natural slate roof, gabled at the ends and partly roofless. Windows are cast iron.

The mill is sited on an island formed by the division of a leat off the River Exe and is surrounded by controlled water. The existing building is all that survives above ground, apart from some low walls, of what was a large industrial complex by the 1880s. It is a rectangular 13-bay building on a north-west to south-east axis, which once extended further at both ends.

The north-west five bays are divided from the rest of the building by a full-height brick wall and are now roofless. These were evidently partly or wholly two storeys at one time, with two tiers of windows in the rear (west) wall and evidence for joist sockets on the north-west end wall. The remainder of the building is single storey and is divided into two sections by a timber-framed crosswall. The three south-east bays contain a small office and the remains of a pit parallel to the end wall.

The asymmetrical east front features 13 bays with segmental-headed windows with brick arches and small-pane cast iron fixed windows (glass missing), which may have had an opening pane in the centre judging by the glazing bar pattern. Two round-headed doorways open onto the front: the right-hand (north) doorway is taller with surviving timber frame but missing door; the next doorway to the left (south) is also round-headed with a vertical plank door with strap hinges and simple metal latch. A third segmental-headed doorway with a ledged and braced vertical plank door is probably a conversion from a window, judging from a circa 1880 model of the site. The rear (west) elevation also has cast iron windows with two tiers of windows in the north five bays. The building evidently extended further to the north, as evidenced by a stump of a longer front wall; the model indicates there was a tall lean-to attached to this end. The building also extended further to the south—the south-east end wall cuts one of the rear windows in half and the rear wall survives for another two window bays beyond this point.

Internally, the south wall of the roofless section contains one metal-framed slot and another with a metal sill, relating to circular marks on the wall and presumably for drive shafts with wheels. No joist sockets appear in this wall, suggesting it is secondary or that this portion was not floored throughout. The central cell has three king-post and strut trusses with a ridgeboard and two tiers of trenched purlins. A vertical slot on the front wall with a neat bullseye opening accommodated a clock. Two of the trusses have metal plates fixed to them, probably for fixing machinery. The timber-framed partition with slender scantling is built up below the tie beam of a truss and has two slim vertical braces. The south end cell incorporates a roofed room made of vertical plank partitions and retains some shafting (not in situ) and gear wheels, with a pit parallel to the end wall towards the front. The end wall, although evidently not the external wall at the time the model was made, incorporates two blocked round-headed openings.

A 19th-century sluice gate with later restoration survives approximately 5 metres north of the building, controlling the leat that passes round the west side of the mill. A shaft to the south turns a cogged iron wheel which operates a bar ratchet fixed to the gate.

According to documentation collected by the Exeter Archaeological Field Unit, there was a paper mill on this site from at least the late 18th century and possibly far earlier, known as Higher Mills at Countess Weir. Newspaper accounts describe it as being "entirely destroyed" in 1816, and the rag house burnt in another fire of 1856, although the location of this fire is unclear. In 1869 Messrs Harris and Martin were described as having "built a new set of mills". Production is said to have ceased in 1884 and the 1905 Ordnance Survey map shows that most buildings had been demolished by then. The paper mills seem to have transferred from using rags for paper-making to esparto grass from North Africa. A scale model of considerable local interest survives, probably dating from circa 1880 or perhaps a little earlier, said to have been made by an apprentice at the mills and showing this building in its setting. There is also a late 19th-century photograph showing the extent of the complex at that date and a boiler attached to the exterior of this building.

Although in poor condition, the building is a significant survival from the 19th-century mill and of interest in a national context. It is of historic interest as evidence of an industry once important to the economy of Devon, which had 41 paper mills in 1820, and contributes to the industrial archaeology of the Exe.