Former mill building and millpond at The Mill

Former Mill Building and Millpond at The Mill

A water-powered corn mill, disused, possibly based on an earlier building and dating from the 17th century with 18th-century alterations; an attached house of the 18th century and later; and a linking building of the mid- to late 19th century.

Materials and Plan

The mill is constructed from squared local limestone with brick to the south gable end, and slate roofs. The house is similar, with plain tile roofs, while the link is partly roughcast rendered. The buildings form an irregular L-shaped group, with the house lying adjacent to the mill at an acute angle and joined by a later link. The mill is oriented north-south, with the lower mill pond and sluice lying to the east of its southern end.

Exterior of the Mill

The mill is a three-bay range of two floors and attic, built into a steep slope, with a one-bay wing extending to the rear from the southern bay to accommodate part of the mill machinery. The building is set partly below the current ground level on its main western elevation. Very large quoins mark either end, and a stone buttress with two offsets rises at the southern end. The narrower left-hand bay houses the entrance to the lower ground floor, a two-centred pointed-arched doorway with chamfers, containing a 18th-century plank door with iron studding. The central bay has three-light timber mullioned windows under timber lintels (21st-century examples replicating earlier 19th-century windows) at lower ground and upper-ground floors, and a single-light gabled dormer to the attic. The right-hand bay has an external stair leading to a wide upper ground-floor opening with an 18th-century door to the left and a timber-clad and half-glazed section to the right. The lower ground floor has a small shuttered opening to the right, lighting the machinery bay. The steeply-pitched roof is covered in slates set in diminishing courses, with a stone stack rising from the left-hand bay. The southern gable end was rebuilt in brick in the 18th century, probably to accommodate updated and enlarged machinery and increased forces on the building. Small one and two-light timber casements are set within the upper ground floor and attic. An overshot waterwheel was formerly set against this wall; the retaining wall of the mill pond adjoining it to the right is constructed from very large limestone blocks and bears the scars of previous accommodations for the overshot waterwheel, estimated to have been perhaps 18 feet in diameter and 2 feet wide. The sluice gate has been replaced, and the wheelpit has been largely infilled. To the rear, due to the steep slope into which the mill is built, only the attic rises above ground. To the left is the gabled rear wing with a central door in the gable, housing a 19th-century door.

Interior of the Mill

The mill is well preserved. The northernmost bay appears to have been in domestic use since its construction, as it is supplied with fireplaces to lower and upper ground floors. The upper floor retains part of a former partition with a doorway between this bay and the working bays of the mill, suggesting that this part was occupied as the miller's dwelling or that the mill began its life as a domestic building. Although the waterwheel and its pitwheel have been removed, much of the rest of the machinery has survived. The lower ground floor has heavy, deeply-chamfered beams to the ceiling and a Hurst frame (internal framework that supported the gears to prevent damage from the vibrations of the workings), extending across the southernmost bay from the main range into the cross wing to the rear. This protects and supports an extensive suite of machinery, all except for the iron wallower (gear wheel which engages with the pit wheel) constructed from apple wood, dating from at least the 18th century, though an earlier date has been postulated and was under investigation in 2015. The main shaft, great spur wheel, wallower and tenter boards, and one of the stone nuts all survive in situ on the lower ground floor, together with the chutes and openings to the floor above. A stone stair at the rear survives to its original height, with a modern timber stair above and beyond to the attic. A large stone buttress rises through two floors at the south-eastern corner. The upper floor has further machinery, including controls for the speed of the waterwheel, one of the earlier two bedstones, and gearing and shaft for a flywheel which powered a chaff cutter. This floor has a fireplace at its northern end with chamfers and stopped monolithic stone uprights under a bressumer incised with apotropaic marks (evil-averting symbols). A doorway has been created from a window to one side of the fireplace, leading into a modern link to the house. The ceiling has heavy beams which are the tie beams for the roof trusses, and large joists. The attic retains evidence of the sack hoist and parts of its mechanism. The roof dates from the 18th century and has paired principal rafters with twin trenched purlins, high collars and heavy tie beams. The roof over the cross wing has undergone some modification and strengthening.

Millpond

The structure of the lower mill pond survives to the east of the mill, with water now running through a diverted course within the silted pond. The pond was lined with massive limestone blocks, the upper courses of which remain visible. The sluice gate has been replaced.