Oakford Mill

SS 92 SW OAKFORD OAKFORD BRIDGE

5/149 Oakford Mill 5.4.66

GV II

Mill and adjoining house. Probably early C19, but likely to be on the site of a Domesday Mill. Whitewashed stone rubble; bitumen-painted slate roof, gabled at ends; left end stack with brick shaft, lateral stack with brick shaft to rear wing. Plan: L plan, the front block divided between the mill, to the right, and domestic use, to the left which extents into the rear left wing. 1 room plan C20 infill in the right angle between the front block and rear wing; C20 single-storey lean-to against left return. Conspicuously-sited on the roadside with Oakford bridge over the Exe to the left (q.v.) and a small bridge over the leat to the right (q.v.). The leat powers an undershot water wheel (roofed over) at the right end of the front block. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3-window front with a C20 timber door to left of centre giving access to the mill and a first floor timber loading door to right centre. 3 first floor early C19 windows with rounded arches and pretty 2-light small-pane timber casements with rounded heads. 2-light small pane timber casements to the ground floor. The domestic part of the building is entered on the left return, through the C20 lean-to ; the left return has 1 early C19 first floor rounded arched window with similar glazing to those on the front. At the right end of the main block the building projects over the leat with 2 round arches, the left arch feeds the leat to the wheel, the right hand arch is a sluice gate. Interior: Mill only inspected. Iron wheel with timber floats and wheelshaft. Considerable survival of machinery on 3 floors including the gearing for a spurwheel drive arrangment; sack hoist and sack-hoist doors; grindstone; timber hopper and a series of timber chutes. The collar rafter roof trusses are probably early C19.

Listing NGR: SS9198421884