Tail Mill

Tail Mill is a former sailcloth textile factory, with later industrial and office use, partially vacant at the time of inspection. It dates from the early 19th century (the chimney base is dated 1836) with late 19th-century additions and early 20th-century alterations. The buildings are constructed of rubble stone with ashlar quoins and dressings, red brick arched heads to openings, and slated roof coverings with later replacements in profiled 20th-century sheeting.

Plan and Site Layout

The site has an irregular plan form, reflecting the gradual evolution of an integrated mill complex. Earlier buildings are sited close to the mill pond and leat to the south, with later buildings grouped around a northern courtyard by 1888, subsequently covered. The complex comprises a warehouse with attached dwelling, textile mill with internal engine and boiler houses, sluice gates to the watercourse, chimney base, north-light weaving shed, single-storeyed ancillary buildings, and a second external engine house.

The Warehouse

The warehouse stands at the south-east corner of the site. It is three storeys with attics, with a symmetrical eight-bay front. A wide gable rises at the centre, and coped gables are topped with polygonal finials. A former full-height double doorway at the centre of the ground floor now has a part-glazed entrance screen with an integral single doorway. Above this are tall double doors, and a further opening at the gable apex. Flanking the central gable are ground floor doorways and two-light windows beneath shallow brick arched heads to all floors, though some to the left side of the first floor have been altered. Some window frames have one light glazed, the other fitted with ventilation louvres.

Inside, the warehouse floors are carried on massive timber beams spanning the front and rear walls. Roof trusses, each with queen struts supporting a collar on which is set a diminutive king post with an expanded, diamond-shaped head, support double purlins. The lower two storeys have cross walls which segregate the loading area of the central two bays from the flanking ranges. Trap doors survive in the floors of the central section, formerly served by a hand-operated hoist drum and wheel mounted between the roof trusses (now dismantled and stored in the attic). The north end of the attic is segregated by a timber partition and door.

The House

A house is attached to the north-west gable of the warehouse. It is two bays and two storeys, probably a mid-19th-century addition, with domestic-scale openings including a tall transomed three-light window with glazing bars to the upper lights on the front elevation. The interior was not inspected.

The Textile Mill

The textile mill stands to the north-west of the warehouse. It is nine bays, two storeys and attics, with a projecting brick stair and hoist tower extension to the north wall, and a low walled enclosure against the east gable. The south elevation has an off-centre, semi-circular arch-headed opening to the former internal engine house at bay three, and multi-paned windows beneath shallow arched heads—two to the left and four to the right of the doorway. The east end has a doorway with a plain planked door at bay eight, and a further window. The central part of the elevation has three blocked arches of different sizes, marking the positions of former water wheel chambers (the east arch corresponds to the position of the mill race shown on the 1844 Tithe Map). The rear elevation has a gabled stair and hoist tower, its external door on the east wall.

Inside, the ground floor retains evidence of an internal boiler house at the west end, with high-level boxed-in beams and a masonry cross wall separating it from the former internal beam engine house alongside, with a second cross wall to the east. The full-height engine house compartment has a brick fireproof ceiling at attic floor level. A cast-iron entablature beam and beams supporting the end of the entablature beam floor remain in situ. Metal ceiling beams retain pairs of lifting rings used for engine installation. Elsewhere, conventionally detailed floors with deep crossbeams and joists are supported by mid-19th-century cast-iron columns in various positions. Queen strut roof trusses with princess struts and collar beams support diminutive king struts. The trusses carry triple purlins, and were also used to support line shafting for powered machinery. The attic floor is double boarded, the upper layer formed of unusually wide elm planks.

The Sluice Gates

Sluice gates, formerly part of the water control system for the textile mill, are located to the south-east and south-west of the mill, on the banks of the former mill pond. They are timber gates with wrought iron raising mechanisms to control outflow from the pond.

The Chimney Base

The chimney base, which formerly supported a full-height mill chimney, is partially enclosed within a later building to the north of the mill. It is of ashlar masonry with a stepped plinth, projecting cornice, and semi-circular arched opening to the north face, with inscriptions above which read "Richard Hayward Erected in 1836" and "Built by Tho Ward Bridport".

The Weaving Shed

The weaving shed with north-light roof and rectangular plan occupies the north-east corner of the site. It is eleven full bays with three narrow bays at the north-west end. Inside, the tall roof has substantial timber trusses supporting three roof compartments. Full-width scarfed tie beams are supported by two intermediate arcades of cast iron. Near-vertical glazing has pivoting centre sections to the lights. Shaft boxes for line shafting to each of the three sections are located in the end walls. The narrow bays to the north-west originally had an open north-east side, and a partition wall separates them from the main shed, suggesting they housed a separate process which required ventilation.

The Ancillary Buildings

Single-storeyed buildings to the west, north-west and north-east of the textile mill housed secondary and finishing processes, and were added between 1844 and 1886. All are of rubble construction with pitched roofs. That immediately west of the mill has undergone 20th-century alteration. The building further west is of broad span with a continuous ventilation louvre to the roof apex, and a six-bay roof with timber principals linked by wrought iron tie rods. It has tall side wall windows with shallow arched heads and composite frames, comprising glazing to the lower half and louvres above.

Further north are two ranges set at right angles. That to the north-west is fourteen bays, with an apex ventilation louvre and narrow dormers to the west roof slope, and a king-post truss roof. The northern boundary of the site was formed by a range running east-west, of which the four eastern bays survive. A further single-storey, eleven-bay range forms part of the eastern site boundary, and is attached to the south-east corner of the weaving shed. It has a prominent apex ventilation louvre with slatted sides operated by an extant lever and pulley system, all supported upon asymmetrical queen strut trusses.

The Engine House

An engine house to the south-west of the weaving shed was added after 1886, and was seemingly built to replace the engine house which powered the weaving shed and the attached single-storeyed ancillary range. It has a gabled roof with collared trusses supporting king posts. There is a blocked arch for a former fly wheel recess in the east part of the south side wall.

History and Significance

Tail Mill was a sailcloth making factory, established on the site of a former water-powered grist mill. By 1825, the site was occupied by Richard Hayward, a prominent sailcloth maker with a mill at West Chinnock. The firm became one of the most important of Somerset's sailcloth manufacturers, and occupied Tail Mill until about 1929. Mid-19th-century inventory evidence suggests that the site was operating as an integrated flax mill, using water and steam power, and with a weaving shed and gas works. Sailcloth, tow (a product made from flax waste) and webbing were being produced by 1868.

Tail Mill is a highly significant site in the history of the Somerset sailcloth industry, dating from the early 19th century. It is an evolved integrated textile factory, retaining characteristic structures from all periods of its development, including ancillary structures used for secondary and finishing processes. These, together with its mid-19th-century weaving shed, and the very clear evidence of both water and steam power provision, form an unusually complete and coherent survival which, despite 20th-century alterations, clearly demonstrates the major phases of development of a significant branch of the textile industry of south-west England.