Mill Building At Sowton Mill

DUNSFORD SX 88 NW

6/26 Mill Building at Sowton Mill 11.ll.52 (formerly listed as Sowton Mill)

GV II

Mill Building. Probably C17 origins, C20 alterations. Granite and freestone rubble, squared granite brought to course behind the water wheel, asbestos slate roof gabled at ends, right gable end, projecting granite stack with set-offs at the right end. The mill building, which has accommodation at the right end, has been altered internally in the late C20 and the water wheel is no longer in use, although the leat is still in use and powers a water turbine for electricity for domestic use. 3 storeys. The west elevation facing the leat is asymmetrical with granite quoins with a scatter of C20 windows to the right and a C20 flat-roofed dormer to the left. The entrance is on the left gable end with a doorway with chamfered jambs and a timber lintel. The iron wheel, in a poor state of repair is at the left end. In front of the wheel the leat is directed through 3 separate channels divided by dressed granite walls. Downstream from the existing wheel a second opening in the wall of the mill building indicates the former position of another wheel. Interior The gable end fireplace has a brick lintel. In spite of the late C20 fenestration the masonry of the mill building indicates an early date and the building forms a group with the mill house to the north west. A granite stone, part of the leat arrangement, has a datestone that may read 165- (last figure illegible). Sowton Mill was formerly known as 'Chaffe's Mill'. An indenture of 16 Oct 1388 granted Nicholas Sparke of Dunsford the right to make a weir "for the conveyinge of a watercourse to a mille to be builded by the said Nicholas". The grant was given by Richard Champernowne of Modbury. Records of the Committee of the Devonshire Association, 9th Report, Halliwell - Phillips Collection,(MS notes in possession of the owner).

Listing NGR: SX8251188324