Higher Mill, Including Walls To Leat At North End And Remains Of Machinery

Woollen mill, later used as a plating factory, disused at the time of survey in 1992.

The mill probably dates from the late 18th century with later alterations. It is built of local grey limestone rubble with slate-hung upper storeys on the front elevation and a half basement partly rendered. The roof is covered with asbestos slate, half hipped at the right end and gabled at the left end, with a rendered shaft stack at the left end.

The building is a large rectangular structure fronting the road with a cartway entrance at the left end. It consists of large open rooms on each floor including an attic floor. The first and second floors are well lit with large front and rear windows. A staircase is positioned to the rear of the cartway entrance. The mill was presumably powered by a leat at the west end, which runs underground and emerges near the south gate of Buckfast Abbey to the south-east. A truncated launder to the rear carries a second water supply parallel to the mill with a sluice between the mill and the rear range.

The exterior is three storeys, with the ground floor storey slightly below road level at the front. An asymmetrical seven-window range is visible. The roof line rises at the left end to the left of a gabled dormer, which may have been associated with a hoist. The cartway to the left has paired plank doors. Ground-floor windows are glazed with various 20th-century casements. First-floor windows probably retain original sash frames in original embrasures, though mostly reglazed. Seven second-floor windows with 20 panes and hornless sash frames, probably from the late 18th century, some in poor repair, light the main elevation. Three hipped roof attic dormers light the roofspace. The left return has a loft loading door. The right return, overlooking the leat, has three round-headed recesses in the centre—one to each storey—with the lower opening partly glazed. Boarded rectangular windows appear in the outer bays of the ground and first floors, with the ground-floor right opening glazed. The rear elevation is buttressed, with most windows boarded up at the time of survey.

The interior ground floor has chamfered crossbeams with run-out stops and exposed joists. An axial row of cast-iron columns supports the crossbeams, dividing into two at the top. The first floor has chamfered crossbeams and a row of secondary axial posts. The second floor has chamfered crossbeams with metal shoes at either end, to which loose metal rods are attached. The attic storey is floored. The roof probably dates from the 18th century and features large scantling mortised at the apex with a mortised collar and queen posts having iron straps tied over the principals; there is probably a secondary high butt collar.

Historical documentation indicates a mill was on the site by at least 1730, described as a tucking mill by 1760. By 1800, "Mills" were described as "lately erected on the site previously occupied by the tucking mill". By 1953 the buildings were in use as a plating works. The late 18th and early 19th-century owner, Samuel Berry, built himself a house at Buckfast Abbey using reused material.

Physical remains of the wool industry, crucial to Devon's economy in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, are rare in the county. This building is certainly one of the earliest and most intact examples in the county and a significant surviving example of the wool industry.