Blackpool Mill

Blackpool Mill is a late 18th-century corn mill of four storeys plus an attic, exhibiting group value. The main elevation, facing southeast, features five windows, with two-storey wings at each end set back from the front but forming a continuous elevation at the rear. The building is rendered on all sides and has slate roofs with coped gables. The windows are sash windows with 16 panes, recessed exposed frames, and slate sills. Many of the sashes appear original, although some have been replaced with types lacking horns. A central original double door, framed and boarded, is set within a dressed limestone surround and topped by a large fanlight. Three steps lead up to the door, and evidence suggests a former canopy once sheltered it.

The rear elevation presents a continuous range of nine windows, unifying the main block and wings. Ground-floor openings three and seven are doorways, seemingly converted from windows, as the head height remains consistent.

The mill is built on a thin plinth over a basement podium. The basement is approximately 0.5 metres high at the front, rising to 5 metres overlooking the river at the rear. The basement’s river-facing stonework is regularly coursed and hammer-dressed, featuring a large central archway for tail water from the wheel and a smaller, blocked archway to the left.

The main roof structure comprises four king-post trusses, each with two purlins on either side, constructed from pine. Struts to the principals are kept high to maximize headroom. A sack-hoist pulley is centrally located at the roof apex. The side extensions have roofs of two bays on queen-post trusses.

The attic floor is supported by four timber cross-girders, themselves resting on timber posts in the floor below. The flooring is of plain pine, with variable widths and without cross-tongues. Floors one through three are of a similar design, each supported by 110mm diameter cast-iron columns in the storey below. The ground floor uses timber girders, including two longitudinal girders supported on stone piers and six trimmed cross-girders to handle machinery loads.

Staircases feature turned oak storey-posts, shaped pine handrails on square balusters, and closed strings.

The mill’s machinery includes a vertical-axis turbine by Armfields of Vale of Avon Ironworks, Ringwood, located in the basement. This drives a lay-shaft at ground floor level, which in turn powers four sets of grinding stones positioned on the first floor. Cast-iron hurst frames at ground floor level incorporate handwheels for adjusting runner pressure.