Priory Mill

Priory Mill

A corn mill built in rubble stone with traces of lime wash and slate roofs. The building is arranged in an L-plan with two and three storeys, comprising an original range with a facade at right angles to the house, its roof hipped at the left angle, plus 19th-century additions.

The original range features openings with timber lintels and 2-light windows that formerly had leaded iron opening casements (one frame survives in the wheel-pit). The facade shows, from left to right: a first floor window with stone sill positioned above and slightly to the left of a board stable-type door with wrought iron hinges; at centre a long first floor board door over a long lintel of a window, with the window itself aligned slightly to the right and its right jamb continued in a straight joint down to ground level; to the right, a window on each floor set higher than other equivalent windows and without sills. A straight joint marks the original end wall, now meeting a 19th-century addition over the wheel-pit, with the roof continued to a gable end. A broad segmental arch with cut stone voussoirs is set low into a deep wide wheel pit. Above this, to the left against the straight joint, is a large fixed 16-pane window with stone sill.

A lower two-storey kiln addition to the right has its upper floor at ground level due to the fall in ground. Outside stone steps lead to a door at the extreme left, with a small unglazed window to the right. The end gable wall has a basement door with windows each side (all with brick heads) and one upper floor window with timber lintel. Stone sills are present throughout.

The rear of the original range has a ground floor casement pair in the angle to the earlier 19th-century added range, with another set placed slightly higher to the left over a ground level window. To the left, the rear of the wheel-pit is sunk down with a low broad segmental arch.

The left end of the original mill has a centre first floor boarded door with timber lintel, a blocked door below, and a 9-pane hopper window to the ground floor left. An earlier 19th-century added building has higher eaves but the same ridge line. It comprises two bays offset to the right; the right bay has two doors one immediately over the other with stone voussoirs to a cambered head and 20th-century timber outside steps. Left-of-centre are 9-pane hopper windows on each floor with stone voussoirs to cambered heads. The left gable end has similar windows each floor and a smaller 6-pane attic window with stone sills. The rear has one 9-pane window on each floor with timber lintels.

Interior of the original range: The ground floor contains a corner fireplace with cambered head and iron grate, a blocked former external door in the wall to the earlier 19th-century addition, five oak beams and square joists, a pit for the former pit-wheel to the right with an oak frame for former machinery, and stone flagged floors. The first floor has two disused windows now internal, a small corner fireplace and a fireplace on the front wall. The floor level to the right has been dropped to accommodate three grindstones set into the floor (two French burr stones and one Welsh gritstone). There is no internal wall to the wheel pit section, which has an enclosed loft on two beams at a lower level than the main loft. The attic contains three oak collar trusses, one with the collar removed for a hoist-wheel.

The wheel pit has a brick arched opening into the main range with a stone keystone. Two massive beams and two smaller outer beams support the floor above. The overshot wheel formerly in the pit has been removed.

The kiln had pierced tiles to its floor (to be restored) and a door with timber lintel at first floor, plus an opening with stone voussoirs from basement level, both connecting into the wheel-pit area. The back wall has a raised red brick chimneybreast stopped at drying floor level. The roof is new.

The earlier 19th-century range has three floors with beamed ceilings to the two main floors and three pine bolted collar trusses to the roof.