Description

ST GERMANS
SX 35 NW
4/56 Heskyn Mill and chimney

II*

Corn mill, now restaurant. Early - mid C19, with some later alterations.
Slatestone rubble. Slate roof with gable ends and ridge tiles.
Plan: Rectangular mill, powered from a leat approaching from the north west
(rear left). There is a wheel pit to each side, with a leat brought round
the rear of the building, running two water wheels. There is a later C19
engine house to the left side, an engine house for a steam engine, with
gearing on to the water wheel at the left side for subsidary power;
freestanding chimney to rear left. Heskyn Mill is unusual in having a dual
power source, and retains a remarkably complete set of machinery internally;
the conversion to a restaurant has made few alterations.
Exterior: 2 storeys with loft; 3 window front. All windows of C20. Ground
floor has 3-light casement with timber lintel to right and left, with central
C20 door with timber lintel. First floor has two 3-light casements and
central 2-light casement with timber lintel. The right side has 3-light
casement at first floor level and to the loft; lean-to to rear of 2 storeys
with C20 glazed door to side. The wheel pit with cast iron waterwheel and
watershaft. The left side also has a C20 casement at first floor and loft
level. The waterwheel has some wooden floats remaining, cast iron shroud and
watershaft. Remains of wooden launder; both wheels are overshot. To left of
the wheel pit, a narrow 2-storey building with 2-light casement in the front
gable end; this would have housed the gearing machinery from the steam engine
to the rear left. At the left side, there is a wide window to the right, 3-
light window and upper loading door and double doors. The engine house is to
the rear left, with a single light ground floor. To the rear left, about 5
metres from the engine house, a freestanding chimney of circular plan,
tapered, in rubble wide brick cornice.
Interior: On the spout floor, at each end of the mill, is the pit wheel,
wallower and great spur wheel; from the train shaft, there are 2 subsidiary
drives at each end, driving 2 sets of stones on the stone floor. On the
stone floor, the wooden tuns are all in place (hoppers retained in an
outbuilding on site), for the stones at the left hand end; the stones to the
right are probably Buhrstone, lightly cemented with plaster of Paris and
bound with iron hoops. In the loft, there is a pulley wheel on the rear
wall. Heskyn Mill is remarkably complete; although the windows have been
replaced, the function of the building is clear. It is said that Heskyn Mill
replaced Cutcrew Mill (q.v.) as the corn mill for the Port Eliot estate, when
Cutcrew was converted as a sawmill.

Listing NGR: SX3427159598

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17555780

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

• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)