Docton Mill

A former mill and mill house, dating to some parts of the 17th century, with probable enlargement in the 19th century. The buildings were restored and the mill partially converted in 1980. The construction is of stone rubble walls, whitewashed to the house, with a gable-ended natural slate roof. Features include an axial rubble stack and a smaller, probably rebuilt, stack at the left-hand gable end of the house.

The house and mill are set at right angles, with the house to the west originally containing two heated rooms. The left-hand room’s gable-end stack may be a later insertion; the whole room could be an addition. The mill forms a cross-wing at the right-hand end of the house. The top floor of the mill has been converted into accommodation but retains its wheel on its right-hand wall. 20th-century extensions have been added to the rear of the mill.

The two-storey house has an asymmetrical two-window front with late 20th-century two-light casement windows, except for one four-light window on the ground floor to the right. The left-hand part of the house is taller, and features a 20th-century gabled stone porch with a stable-type door to the left of centre. The mill has a door on its inner face, above which is a 20th-century two-light casement. On the front end wall, the ground rises to a top-floor doorway with glazed double doors. The right-hand wall of the mill retains a late 19th-century overshot iron wheel with a wooden launder leading to it. A balcony has been created on the top floor to the right, during the recent restoration, with glazed doors behind a small gable. A large, probably 19th-century, lean-to has been built against the rear wall of the mill, extended in the 20th century, with a small gabled 20th-century wing adjoining it.

Internally, a 17th-century axial fireplace has a chamfered and stop-chamfered wooden lintel and there remain wany roughly chamfered ceiling beams. Most of the mill machinery was removed earlier in the 20th century. Surviving machinery, installed in the late 1930s, originates from Newton St Petrock mill.

A rate made in 1682 mentions Docton Mill and values the property at £12.