Beaford Mill House And Adjoining Garden Walls

Beaford Mill House and adjoining garden walls

Mill house, now house. Dating from the 16th century, altered and enlarged in the 17th century. The building is constructed of rendered cob on a stone rubble plinth, with a gable-ended wheatstraw thatched roof. Stone end stacks are positioned to the right and rear, with a lateral stack to the rear (partly rendered).

The original 16th-century plan follows a three-room and through-passage layout, facing north-west with the ground falling away to the right. A central hall is flanked by a former service room to the right (with an external end stack) and a former inner unheated room to the left. The house may originally have been open to the roof and heated by an open-hearth fire running end to end. An external lateral stack was added to the rear of the hall in the early 17th century, likely while the hall remained open to the roof (as evidenced by a high lintel). An early 17th-century single-roomed kitchen wing projects at right angles from the rear of the hall, incorporating an integral end stack and a steep 17th-century winder stair in the corner. A first floor was inserted in the hall, probably in the late 17th century. A probable 19th-century lean-to addition (possibly formerly a dairy) occupies the left-hand angle of the rear wing, while a late 20th-century lean-to porch sits in the right-hand angle.

The two-storey front elevation is asymmetrically fenestrated. A central first-floor 19th-century two-light small-paned wooden casement window with wooden lintel lights a chamber above the hall. Three ground-floor windows comprise mid to late 19th-century four-paned sashes to the hall centre and right-hand end (with wooden lintels), and a late 20th-century plate-glass window to the left. The passage doorway, positioned off-centre to the right, contains a mid-19th-century five-panelled door (lower panels beaded flush, centre panel recessed, upper panels glazed) with a wooden lintel. The left-hand gable end displays 19th-century two-light wooden casements on both floors. The right-hand gable end has a first-floor two-light wooden casement to the left of the stack (with wooden lintel) and a raking buttress to the right. The rear of the right-hand end has a first-floor 19th-century two-light wooden casement and ground-floor 19th-century three-light wooden casement, both with wooden lintels. A passage rear doorway opens to the right. The south-west side of the rear kitchen wing has a ground-floor 19th-century three-light wooden casement lighting the kitchen and an adjacent lean-to bread oven to the right. A doorway to the left features a 17th-century chamfered wooden frame (now within a 20th-century lean-to porch).

The north-east side of the rear wing has a first-floor 18th-century three-light wooden casement and a ground-floor boarded door.

Interior features include a stone-flagged passage with 19th-century matchboarded dado and 19th-century panelled doors. The hall contains a late 17th-century chamfered spine beam with ogee stops and plain joists, with a rear fireplace (altered in the late 20th century) featuring a high wooden lintel. A trimmer in the ceiling to the right of the fireplace suggests a possible former staircase. A window seat faces the front. The former inner room to the left has a 17th-century spine beam with broach stops. The right-hand ground-floor room has a brick floor, longitudinal joists, and a 17th-century open fireplace with splayed dressed stone jambs and a plain wooden lintel. Stone cross walls between rooms in the hall range may represent later additions or rebuildings. The roof over the hall range contains trusses with straight principals (the roof space is ceiled).

The ground-floor kitchen room in the rear wing has a 17th-century chamfered cross beam with stepped run-out stops and joists. An open fireplace to the rear has a large wooden lintel, with a bread oven to the right featuring a cast-iron door. A window seat is set into the side wall. The first-floor room in the rear wing is approached by a steep 17th-century winder stair in the corner by the stack. It retains old floorboards and an old plaster ceiling up to collar level. An 18th-century window in the north-east wall has a wooden diamond-section stanchion to the centre light. A visible 17th-century truss has straight principals and a collar.

Low 19th-century stone rubble walls enclose a small garden to the front (north-west) of the house, with a central gateway. A short length of stone rubble wall adjoins to the south-west of the rear wing, topped with slate coping and featuring a gateway with wooden lintel.

The house forms part of a mill complex, also including the mill, leat retaining walls, and bridges.