Powder Mills is a Grade II listed building in the Dartmoor National Park local planning authority area, England. First listed on 28 October 1987. Industrial. 1 related planning application.
Powder Mills
- WRENN ID
- waiting-mortar-bracken
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Dartmoor National Park
- Constituency
- Torridge and Tavistock MP: Sir Geoffrey Cox (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 28 October 1987
- Type
- Industrial
- Address
- Powder Mills, Dartmoor Forest, West Devon, PL20 6SP
- OS grid reference
- SX 627 773
- Coordinates
- 50.57934, -3.93937
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Powder Mills are the ruins of a gunpowder mill established in 1844 by Plymouth alderman George Frean. This site was originally a large complex of buildings that extended up the valley, featuring several water wheels powered by water from a leat and two chimneys. Currently, the buildings are in various states of ruin, with only one chimney still standing. The remaining structures are made of granite rubble with granite lintels and are all roofless. The surviving chimney is well-built, featuring a stringcourse near the top and a plinth, and it has a covered channel that runs downhill towards the largest ruinous building. The invention of dynamite in 1867 quickly replaced gunpowder, leading to the closure of the mills in the 1890s, which had employed around 100 men.
Local climate
Powder Mills receives an average of 940 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 71% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 76% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 30 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 63% of listed buildings. Of these, 14 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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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- 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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