Description

SNETTISHAM

383/4/55 STATION ROAD
16-MAY-77 SOUTHGATE
THE MILL

(Formerly listed as:
STATION ROAD
SOUTHGATE
THE MILL)

II*
Watermill with attached later granary. 1800, as per inscription, with a mid Cl9 granary. Carstone with brick dressings and quoins. Squared carstone to lower part of south facade whilst other parts of the original building in coursed rubble with brickwork to the walls of tail race and bypass channel. Granary with random laid carstone. Roofs of pantiles. Two stories with attic floor to mill building. Granary and mill each with a separate hipped roof. Easternmost bay houses the waterwheel. South facade of mill with boarded stable-door, shuttered two-light window and one unglazed two-light window to wheel bay. Brick semicircular relieving arch with flush tympanum on timber framework over tailrace. Inscription on stone plaque above reading: This mill was erected in a time of scarcity by voluntary subscription for the common benefit of the neighbourhood. AD 1800. 'Discite Justiciam moniti et non tempere leges',(Virgil, "Leges" replacing "Divos"). One shuttered two-light window to floor above. Granary with three cart entrances beneath segmental brick arches. Boarded double doors. Single boarded double door to upper floor with railing to mid height. East gable-end with large doorway across by pass channel into wheel chamber. Glazed two-light casement window above. Sluice to mill pond side of by-pass channel. North facade with one two-light casement window with glazing bars and a boarded door. Granary with two two-light windows with horizontal glazing bars.
INTERIOR. Waterwheel with ventilated metal buckets and integral pitwheel driving the fine timber vertical drive shaft via the wallower. Tentering gear to two pairs of stones. Sluice crank to north. Great spur wheel above driving two sets of stones via cast iron stone nuts, and unusually also driving a further set of stones on the attic floor above, in this case with a timber stone nut. The lower two pairs of stones are over-driven, a very uncommon feature in watermills. Crown wheel clamped to great spur wheel driving a horizontal facetted shaft which powers a roller mill and the sack hoist. Roof structure of wedge-tenoned butt purlins. Lapped tenons in common mortise. One tie beam. Granary roof with dove-tailed collars and double tie beams.
SOURCE: Nott, R. "Subscription Mill, Snettisham" Proceedings of the TIMS 6th International Symposium on Molinology, Belgium 1986.

This mill retains all its machinery, is in working order, and is a remarkable survival. There is also the historic interest in that it was built by public subscription on a co-operative basis for the benefit of the whole parish.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17554731

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
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  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
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  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy