Felin Ganol

Felin Ganol is a 18th-century corn mill with an attached mill house, situated approximately in a T-plan layout. The mill itself forms a cross-range, with a warehouse extending to the north. The mill has a gabled front, with a slightly lower gabled addition in front. The front features a four-pane window and a boarded basement door, both with concrete lintels. A boarded door is located on the north side. A long rear projection fronts the south side, featuring a boarded door with a short flight of steps and a four-pane window alongside a lower six-pane window – both also with timber lintels. The rear gable end contains a large, restored cast-iron overshot water wheel, complete with wooden scoops and spokes, served by a substantial mill-pond immediately to the north. A restored wooden controllable overthrow and a concrete-lined wheel-pit are also present, the latter draining into the Afon Wyre. A weather-boarded rear gable completes the mill’s exterior, and a large two-storey warehouse adjoins the north side, with its upper storey rebuilt in concrete block. The warehouse has three wide doorways on the ground floor; the doorway on the right has been altered with the insertion of a door and window.

Inside the mill, much of the original machinery remains intact. The basement contains a cast iron pit-wheel which meshes with a cast iron wallower at the base of a massive vertical timber shaft. A wooden spur-wheel, of clasp-arm type, drives two iron stone-nuts set on oak bridge-trees. An altered/repaired hurst-frame includes a short layshaft driven from the pit-wheel by a wooden toothed bevel cog, with a belt-pulley at the outer end of the shaft. A meal-trough is fed from wooden spouts from the grinding floor above. Timber-framed sack-trap and wire-machine are also present, with a grindstone set in the floor. The ground floor structure includes three massive beams with rough joists. The upper floor houses two enclosed grinding wheels with horse-framed wooden hoppers above. One stone is granite, set in an octagonal case, while the other is a French-burr type with a maker’s plate identifying Kay and Hilton of Liverpool. A sack-hoist, wheel and cogs for operating a slack-belt sack-hoist, and a floor-hatch are also located on this level. A part-loft sits above. The roof is a four-bay collar-truss construction featuring rough trusses and collars with paired purlins, joined using pegged joints. An added front portion of the mill serves as an office above the basement. A drying kiln, situated between the mill and the house, has a tiled floor, some tiles bearing the stamp "Catheral," and it includes a feeding-spout from the attic. The kiln's brick substructure, accessible from the yard below, features a hearth surround of yellow and red brick, along with a red brick half-vault.