Fernside Mill

This former mill building is now roofless and in extremely poor condition. The three-storey structure was built backing onto the mill dam. The former top floor is level with the road and has direct access to it through the gable end. The other two floors were below the water level in the mill pond, giving a 5m head. The building is constructed of coursed squared rock faced local sandstone rubble and although the roof has gone the gable ends remain in place. The south-west, roadside, gable end has an elliptically-headed boarded door and an inset Victorian (VR) wall post box. The elevation onto the millpond (north-west) is single storey but the former timber frame, with vertical louvres, is lost. This was a diagnostic feature of the former mill as the louvres were there to ventilate the paper drying floor. The downstream (south-east) elevation is three storeys and had two doors and three windows on the ground floor and five windows on the first floor. The elliptical heads and openings remain but most of the windows have gone and some of the ground floor openings are blocked up. The upper floor has entirely gone.

The original plan of drying floor at the top, paper making floor in the middle and rag floor to the base is no longer discernible following internal collapse and the building’s progressively ruinous state.