Higher Flax Mills

Higher Flax Mills is a former flax, hemp and tow factory, partially in use as a horsehair weaving factory. The buildings date from the mid to late 19th century with some 20th-century additions, standing on the site of an early 19th-century mill developed by T.S. Donne and Sons. The complex is built of rubble stone and red brickwork with double Roman clay and plain clay tile roofs.

Layout and Development

The buildings form an L-shaped, accretional plan developed to the north of the River Cary. The complex comprises a functionally related group of buildings: the Flax Mill at the eastern end of the site, and a series of buildings in a long range along the north side, consisting (from east to west) of the Upper Warehouse, Middle Warehouse and Offices, Dyehouse, and Lower Warehouse.

The Flax Mill

The Flax Mill is a three-storey structure of five bays, aligned north-south. Built around 1870, it represents a rebuilding of an earlier mill. Construction occurred in two phases to allow production to continue uninterrupted. The mill is built of Hadspen stone with red brick dressings and features an ornate bellcote on the southern gable. Most windows retain their original cast-iron frames with pivoting central panels. The front elevation has taking-in doors in the third bay from the northern end, with another in the south end wall serving the top storey. Single-storey brick-built extensions at the southern end date from the early to mid 20th century, constructed on the foundations of an earlier structure. The waterwheel was positioned against the external north wall; its wheelpit survives, now capped with concrete.

Internally, the main entrance gives access to separate wooden staircases. Floors are of joisted timber construction with beams supported on cast-iron columns. The roof has king post trusses with angled struts and two ranks of purlins. The internal engine house was located in the south end bay of the ground floor, though the horizontal compound engine has been removed and the boiler house and chimney demolished. Unusually, the building was designed to be powered by both the steam engine and the external waterwheel.

The Upper Warehouse

The late 19th-century expansion of the site included the addition of the Upper Warehouse, built between 1887 and 1896. This represented a doubling of warehouse capacity at the site. The building is three storeys with a symmetrical plan of five bays. The main entrance and a full-height row of taking-in doors occupy the central bay of the front (south) elevation. The stone walls, limestone plinth, windows and use of red brick are all similar to the Flax Mill. Inside, floors are supported by cast-iron columns with cast-in sides to the top plates to provide additional support to the beams. The southern side of the roof retains evidence of a former manual hoist pulley.

Middle Warehouses and Offices

The central section of the long west-east range contains a group of attached buildings of at least four phases, two of which pre-date 1870. From east to west, these comprise a mid 19th-century warehouse of six bays now used as offices. It is of rubble construction with a narrow plan, and the southern gable end contains former taking-in doors to the first floor and attic. A small two-storey west wing is attached to the northern end bay, distinguished by the use of stone quoins in the external corners. It has a blocked taking-in door in the western end of the upper floor, suggesting it also functioned as warehousing. This mid 19th-century warehouse was lit by small windows at ground floor, between which are vertical niches in the side walls, possibly to accommodate machinery.

Immediately west is the larger mid 19th-century Middle Warehouse, which is three storeys and four bays. Built of the same stone and red brick as the Flax Mill, it has a canted bay in the south elevation. A late 19th-century cast-iron wall crane and an earlier hoist beam remain attached to the west (front) elevation. The area between these two warehouses has been infilled with an early 20th-century two-storey building which may have functioned as a showroom area or office extension, with pairs of sash windows to both ground and first floors.

The Middle Warehouse has an office room at the southern end of the ground floor, identified externally by the bay window. It retains some mid to late 19th-century features including panelling and a fireplace, and was probably the wages office. Elsewhere the warehouse was open from end to end, each floor served by a taking-in door in the front (west) elevation.

The Dyehouse

West of the Middle Warehouse is the former Dyehouse, built of red brick laid in Flemish bond on a limestone plinth, contrasting with the other mill buildings which are of stone. It is two storeys and four bays with a gabled roof. The building was constructed in two phases: the eastern three bays forming the original building, with the western bay probably added in the late 19th century and used as a fire engine house in 1947, when the eastern room served as a canteen. Windows have flat heads in splayed brick and most retain 19th-century cast-iron frames. The entrance is in the north side, above which is an external stair leading to a door in the upper storey.

A modern single-storey blockwork shed with double doors to the south (front) elevation fills the space between the Dyehouse and the Lower Warehouse to the west. This structure is not of special interest.

The Lower Warehouse

The Lower Warehouse dates from around 1870 and is similar in size, materials, fenestration and construction to the Upper Warehouse. It has joisted timber floors supported by cast-iron columns which are of simpler form than those in the Flax Mill, with bracketed top plates. The upper floors are accessed via a straight wooden staircase next to the south side, east of the entrance. The top storey is open to the gabled roof, which has king-post trusses, and there is a projecting hoist beam above the top taking-in door. The fittings for the hoist also survive in the roof trusses together with holes for the pulley ropes in the floors. The building is currently used for horsehair weaving.

Historical Context

Sources indicate that mills have been present at the site from at least the 17th century, and that it was used for the flax industry from at least the 19th century. All the extant buildings date from the late 19th century, when the site was rebuilt and extended as a flax, hemp and tow factory by T.S. Donne and Sons. It functioned as an integrated flax factory, combining water and steam-powered mill with covered and open walks and large-scale warehousing, producing thread, linen warps for the horsehair fabric industry, twine, rope, cordage and webbing. T.S. Donne and Sons closed in the early 1980s. Much of the site is now occupied by the firm of John Boyd Textiles Ltd, who produce horsehair cloth at the site. It is considered to be the only horsehair fabric manufactory in the world which uses powered looms, some of which date from the 1870s.

Higher Flax Mills forms a group with the Entrance Lodge. The complex is one of the largest and unusually complete examples of an integrated rope and twine works in the West Country, providing clear evidence of the production process for rope and twine manufacture and the type of structures which characterised a significant regional industry in the 19th century. The current use of part of the site by John Boyd Textiles is of added significance, as the company is unique in being the only horsehair weaving factory in the world which uses power looms.