Beaford Mill and Adjoining Leat Retaining Walls and Bridge is a Grade II listed building in the Torridge local planning authority area, England. First listed on 16 February 1989. Mill. 6 related planning applications.
Beaford Mill and Adjoining Leat Retaining Walls and Bridge
- WRENN ID
- fossil-flue-starling
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Torridge
- Constituency
- Torridge and Tavistock MP: Sir Geoffrey Cox (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 16 February 1989
- Type
- Mill
- Address
- Beaford Mill and Adjoining Leat Retaining Walls and Bridge, EX19 8AA
- OS grid reference
- SS 543 143
- Coordinates
- 50.91044, -4.07372
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The building is a mill, dated 1867 and enlarged in the 19th century. It is constructed of snecked squared stone with dressed quoins and voussoirs, and has a gable-ended Welsh-slate roof. The mill is aligned approximately north-west/south-east, with a southeast block dated 1867 and a northeast extension added in the later 19th century. It was formerly equipped with an undershot external waterwheel on the southwest side of the 1867 block, although the waterwheel and its roof have since been removed. Adjoining the southwest side are leat retaining walls and a small bridge. The mill has two storeys and a loft, with a one-storey and loft addition.
The southwest side, facing the leat, is largely windowless, except for a central first-floor three-light window (with a blocked window below) and a first-floor doorway to its left. The right-hand gable end features a small one-light attic window, a first-floor two-light wooden casement, and a ground-floor two-light opening. A datestone is located below the attic window. The left-hand gable end has a two-light wooden casement to the loft and a ground-floor pair of large boarded double doors, topped with a wooden lintel and a segmental-pointed stone relieving arch. At the rear of the right-hand block is a louvred attic window, a first-floor boarded door within a wooden frame (accessed by external brick steps), and a boarded ground-floor door below the steps.
The leat retaining walls are constructed of squared and coursed stone. The small bridge over the leat has dressed voussoirs and cobbled decking. The interior of the mill includes two pairs of boxed millstones on the first floor of the right-hand block, with an old hoist for lifting the stones. There are also various grain shutes and trap doors. A complete wooden sack hoist is located in the attic, formerly powered by a take-off from the main drive, and incorporates a wooden pulley wheel and a wooden drum with chain. The 1867 block has a three-bay roof with bolted collar trusses and pairs of purlins, while the later 19th-century extension has a four-bay roof with collar trusses. An old hoist is also present in the later extension. The mill and adjoining leat walls form part of a larger mill complex that includes Beaford Mill House.
Local climate
Beaford Mill and Adjoining Leat Retaining Walls and Bridge sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 980 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 78% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 81% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 18 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 83% of listed buildings. Of these, 7 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- Sale history — 3 transactions since 1996
- Related listed building consents — 6 applications
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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