Entrance Lodge To Higher Flax Mills

This is a detached cottage, serving as the entrance lodge to the Higher Flax Mills complex. It was likely built in the mid-19th century. The lodge is constructed of roughly dressed and squared Cary stone with red brick dressings. It has a plain clay tile roof with overhanging gables featuring decorative bargeboards, an ornamental clay tile ridge, and brick chimney stacks. The building is two storeys high and has two bays facing the road. It features a lias stone plinth, brick quoins, and brick dressings surrounding the openings. The windows are cast iron lattice casements in wooden frames; the first bay has a 2-light window, the upper bay has a single-light window, and the lower bay has an angled window with a 1+2+1 light arrangement under a hipped tiled roof. An entrance is located on the west gable, leading into a projecting open porch with a boarded door and flanking slim windows. There is a 2-light window above the porch, and a vent in the gable, all matching the window style. The interior of the lodge has not been inspected.

The site of Higher Flax Mills has been used for milling since at least the 17th century, transitioning to flax production by the 19th century. The current buildings date from the late 19th century, when the site was rebuilt and expanded as a flax, hemp, and tow factory by T.S. Donne and Sons. The mill operated as an integrated facility, combining water and steam power and producing thread, linen warps for the horsehair fabric industry, twine, rope, cordage, and webbing. T.S. Donne and Sons ceased operations in the early 1980s. The site is now in part occupied by John Boyd Textiles Ltd, which produces horsehair cloth using powered looms, some dating from around 1870.

Higher Flax Mills stands as one of the largest and best-preserved rope and twine works in the West Country, a notably complete and coherent example of its type. The complex clearly illustrates the process of rope and twine manufacture and exemplifies the structures associated with a significant regional industry in the 19th century. The continued use of the site by John Boyd Textiles is particularly significant, as they represent the only horsehair fabric manufactory worldwide that utilizes powered looms.