Western Cottage, Putton Mill

Western Cottage, Putton Mill

This is an early 19th-century complex comprising cottages, farm buildings, a mill, and a kiln, all with later alterations and changes of use. The buildings are arranged in a U-plan formation and have been substantially converted: the mill and kiln are now pig sheds, and the cottages retain their original form as a single-storey range with an attic to the outer left cottage and a two-storey section breaking the eaves to the right cottage.

The cottages adjoin a single-storey range of farm buildings to the east, also part of the U-plan, which includes pens and two cattle courts. The structures are built predominantly in harl-pointed rubble. The two-storey cottage features a roughly squared and snecked late rubble addition to the rear. The mill, aligned north-east to south-west, has coursed rubble with droved ashlar dressings, while the adjoining square-plan kiln features rubble with stugged ashlar dressings.

The south-facing elevation of the cottages shows later panelled doors with 6-pane glazed upper sections, positioned centrally and to the right, both with slate monopitch canopies on wrought-iron brackets and accompanying windows. The east cottage has a boarded door with a 2-pane letterbox fanlight above, also under a similar canopy, with windows at both ground and first-floor levels. The north elevation displays a small window under the eaves in the outer-left bay of the central cottage, a window to the left of the west cottage, and a distinctive drum tower at the north-west corner of the east cottage. A later central addition contains windows at each floor level and a boarded door to the west return elevation, with windows to the ground floor of flanking bays. The interior of the cottages was not inspected at the time of listing in 1995.

The U-plan farm buildings comprise three ranges. The north-south range to the east has an east-west orientation and displays four irregularly disposed bays on its south elevation with boarded doors to the outer bays and windows to the inner bays. The north elevation features a boarded door with timber lintel to the outer left, sited on rising ground. The interior retains hay hecks and trevises in place. The north-south range to the west has boarded two-leaf doors on its west elevation to the left. The eastern elevation shows a boarded door with timber lintel to the right of centre. The southern east-west range has a boarded timber door to the shed to its left on the north elevation, with a boarded two-leaf door to the outer right, possibly serving a store or shed, and a later central opening. The south elevation features a blank end wall to the centre, a rounded south-west corner opening to the cattle court with two-leaf boarded gates to the left of centre, a feeding trough opening to the outer left, and two-leaf boarded gates to the right of centre with a monopitch shelter to the outer right. Hay hecks remain in place within the interior. The northern east-west range has a boarded door with timber lintel to the outer left on its north elevation. The interior contains hay hecks and low concrete troughs in situ. Nineteenth-century skylights are positioned along the south side, with a wallhead stack at the centre of the north elevation.

The mill, much altered, has six bays on its south elevation. Two-leaf board doors appear to the left of centre, topped with a corrugated iron strip and concrete lintel above an earlier stone voussoir. A split boarded door with concrete lintel stands to the right of centre, with an offset first-floor opening to its left. A later window at ground level occupies the penultimate bay to the right, with a narrower voussoir above, while a split boarded door with stone lintel and voussoir sits at the outer right. Another boarded split door to the left of centre features a first-floor opening above. The outer-left elevation includes a door opening flanked to its right by a window opening, with a first-floor window above. The north elevation is two storeys at the west, reducing to single storey to the east due to higher ground level, with window openings at ground and first-floor levels to the right of centre and a window at ground level to the outer right. A piended roof projects from the eaves to the east of the left-centre position. The east elevation is gabled with a boarded door to the right at north-east ground level and a window to the left at first-floor level; it formerly had a monopitch shed at ground level. The roof displays slate with coped skews and scroll skewputts, and includes three 19th-century two-pane skylights.

The adjoining kiln, advanced from the mill to the west, has a door opening at ground level on its south elevation with a timber flight hole opening at eaves. The west elevation contains a window at ground level. The north elevation features a single-storey projection with a window and boarded door to the west return elevation. The interior contains low concrete pens, hay hecks to the corners, and plumbed drinking bowls at ground level. The kiln has a pantiled pyramidal roof with a marine-type ventilator at the apex; the roof extends down to a single-storey addition to the north elevation.

Modern additions include a free-standing brick single-storey building to the south close to the mill and a modern brick monopitch shed with a walled forecourt to the south adjacent to the stream, possibly a former pigsty. Other modern farm buildings are also present on the site.

All cottages now have modern uPVC windows. A modern skylight was inserted to the rear west cottage in the bay to the left. Slate roofs cover the cottages, including graded slates to the candle snuff roof of the drum tower to the rear of the east cottage, with brick stacks. The U-plan farm buildings mostly retain slate roofs, except for corrugated iron on the southern east-west range. Brick stacks are present throughout. The mill roof is slate with coped skews and scroll skewputts, featuring three 19th-century two-pane skylights.