Description

SCHEDULE
ST 6416
OBORNE ROAD
2/450 (East Side, off)
II Castleton Mill

Water pumping mill. 1869 by John Lawson (of Westminster) for Sherborne Local Board of
Health; extended and wheel replaced 1898; late C20 alterations. Coursed rock-
faced stone; roof of Spanish slates (replacing Welsh slates). Single storey. 1 x 2
bays, the front bay added 1898; wheel-chamber at rear, the wheel fed by 3 leats all at
different levels. Chamfered plinth. Round-arched windows with chamfered sills and
small-pane glazing. Gable front has segment-arched doorway on left with diagonally-
boarded double door; window on right; raised verge with shaped kneelers and coping with
roll-moulded apex. Right return: projecting wheel: at eaves, to left of this, stack
with gabled base. Rear: 2 windows boarded up; below right window arched pipe for
leading water to wheel (the middle-most feed). Left return: window to right;
projecting attached stone wall at centre not of special interest; on left, opening for
lower-most water-feed: above it an iron pentrough projects from the wall, formerly
carrying water to wheel at highest feed-level.
Interior: front bay has encaustic tile floor and pit for former pumps. Wheel chamber
retains the 1893 39" pitch-back water-wheel made by Edward White of Redditch; it is 26'
in diameter, has a perimeter drive (gearing now removed) and drove three vertical drive
pumps. The original water tank and launder, cast by Sothert and Pitt of Bath, survive,
as also the winding gear to open up and shut off the water supply.
The water wheel is unusually large and a rare survival; and the complex planning of the
feed system (taking into account 3 different sources of water and the nearby railway)
is of interest. The mill was designed to pump water to Sherborne, but was unable to
meet demand and was first supplemented by a turbine-powered pump-house built nearby (in
1874), and then itself extended 1898).

K. Falconer England's Industrial Heritage p.91

Listing NGR: ST6460616900

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26404351

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.

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