The Old Mill

THE OLD MILL

A corn mill, extended or rebuilt in the late 18th to early 19th century, with significant extensions and alterations made in the mid to late 19th century. Now partly disused. The building is constructed of coarse limestone rubble with rubble dressings up to roughly the level of the first-floor window heads, with flatter rubble to the upper floors above first-floor brick heads. It features a rubble external stack on the east gable and a slate roof, half-hipped over the mill section.

The building is L-shaped in plan, comprising a west mill with a wheel pit on its west side, and an east warehouse or store with a single-storey shed at the east gable. The structure rises to three storeys. The south mill gable and store elevation displays a 2 to 3-window arrangement.

The mill's west elevation contains three windows, with the central section above the first floor slightly recessed. The ground floor is windowless. The first-floor casements have rubble heads, and second-floor casements sit under the wall plate. A late 19th-century concrete trough forms the head race at first-floor level, positioned above the wheel pit and connected to the remains of a turbine which replaced the original water wheel. The south gable features a raking canopy over a stable door, with timber lintels to single ground, first, and second-floor casements. To the right are 19th-century brick segmental arched casements above a brick segmental archway. Pigeon holes are present at second-floor level. The rear gable is half-hipped and contains an upper casement. The east side has two doorways and two ground-floor windows, one first-floor window with stone arched heads, and a small central second-floor light. The store section has evenly-spaced ground-floor openings with stone heads and a right-hand doorway, brick heads to first-floor casements, and second-floor casements under the wall plate. The rear elevation features a central hoist bay with double doors to the first and second floors under a hipped canopy supported on timber brackets, with paired doorways either side and a further doorway to the left. A single first and second-floor window appears on each side. The end gable contains coarse stone up to a former first-floor gable, with a square stack rising to the ridge. A later single-storey shed with a hipped roof is attached to the end, with double doors facing north.

The upper storeys of the mill retain milling equipment, including belt shafting from the turbine and second-floor corn bins positioned either side of an axial catwalk. Considerable evidence of the mill's former operations is visible in the walls and floors. The former store is divided lengthwise on the ground floor, with animal stalls to the front and a stair at the east end. The first floor contains an axial row of 19th-century timber posts supporting the clear top floor. Both the mill and store sections are roofed with mid to late 19th-century king post scissor trusses.

Historical records indicate a mill has stood on this site since at least 1630, as noted in the deeds, and it is marked on the 1841 Tithe map. The chimney may indicate an industrial use connected to drying. The mill pond, positioned to the northeast, is connected to the mill by a brick leat. Despite the loss of the water wheel and much of the original milling plant, this is a comparatively unaltered corn mill, preserving considerable evidence of its earlier uses. It forms part of a good early 19th-century group with the adjoining cart house and barn, together demonstrating the semi-industrial nature of agricultural practice during this period.