Edington Mill

Edington Mill

Early to earlier 19th century grain mill, substantially extended and part-replaced in the later 19th century. The complex comprises a 3-storey original block adjoined to a taller 4-storey, 4-bay rectangular-plan extension, with a recessed kiln house to the outer left. Various rear additions create a near E-plan arrangement. The buildings are constructed predominantly from harl-pointed sandstone rubble, squared in part, with stugged quoins and stugged long and short surrounds to openings. The 4-storey block features segmental-arched openings with squat upper windows. Part of the complex is rendered brick, with a brick addition at the rear. The kiln house block is harled.

The west elevation features a large square-headed opening at ground level offset left of centre, a segmental-arched doorway to its left, and a boarded timber hoist door with 2-pane fanlight at first-floor level. The 3-storey adjoining block has single windows at all floors in both bays. The south elevation includes a rendered block to the left and a flat-roofed addition with single windows at all three floors. The 4-storey block recessed to the outer right has a segmental-arched opening at ground level and a square-headed doorway at first floor.

The east elevation displays a 2-storey and attic, 3-bay gabled wheelhouse projecting from the 4-storey central block, with a squat recessed upper window above. A 3-storey, 3-bay flat-roofed projection to the left contains timber doors at ground and first-floor levels. The north elevation has a blind kiln house elevation with a single-storey lean-to addition to the left and steps to a square-headed entrance in the 4-storey block.

Fenestration consists predominantly of 12-pane timber sash and case windows to the 4-storey block, with 6-pane tilt windows to upper openings, and 8-pane lying-pane windows to the 3-storey block. Various windows at the rear are partly blocked. Roofing includes modern profiled sheeting to the 4-storey block with stone-coped skews and bracketed skewputts; part grey slate and part corrugated-iron covers the remainder. A louvred ridge ventilator tops the kiln house.

The interior has been converted to store and office use with steel-framing and timber floors. Original equipment remains in place, including grinding stones and the remains of a small turbine in the wheelhouse. Brick-built, coke-fired kilns continue in operation.

An associated single arched bridge of rubble-coped, harl-pointed sandstone rubble spans the lade to the east, featuring regular voussoirs to a round-arched opening. The masonry-lined lade includes concrete repairs and waste water sluices with cast-iron frames by the mill tunnel entrance. The cauld is a submerged open Z-plan structure with concrete-facing (probably over a masonry core) and steel-framed sluices.

The Ordnance Survey Name Book (1856-1858) recorded the site as "a large building 3 stories high and in good repair with suitable offices and small cottages for workmen attached...The machinery is propelled by water." The mill ceased working by 1998. In 1976, while still operational, four waterwheels were noted—the principal ones being 6-spoke, 3-ring, low-breast wood and iron shrouded paddle-wheels. Today only the kiln house retains its original use, drying grain and linked to a large drying store on the hillside above. The majority of the building now serves as storage and office premises for a new mill standing to the north-west.

Although damaged by fire and floods in the past, the older structure remains fundamentally intact. A rubble-built, 2-storey, single-bay ancillary structure still stands to the north-west. James Hay is recorded as miller here in 1866. The site is documented in sources from 1795 onwards, appearing on Blackadder's map (1797) as E Mill and Thomson's map (1821) as Edington Mill.