Description

BRIDGWATER

ST3036 BLAKE STREET
736-1/9/13 (East side)
24/03/50 Old Mill

GV II

Mill, now storage space and future gallery for the Blake
Museum to the left (qv). Medieval site, rebuilt early/mid C19.
Painted limestone rubble base with painted English-bond brick
above, pantile roof, half-hipped to the front gable end.
Rectangular plan with extensions to the left.
2 storeys; one-window range. The front, facing north-west up
Blake Street, has a C20 two-light casement window at eaves
level under the half hip; at its cill level, to the left, is a
timber lintel to a small 4-pane window; below it on the the
ground floor is a timber lintel to a C20 vertical 6-pane
window and to the right are C20 double planked doors under a
C20 timber lintel.
The right return has a gauged brick segmental arch to a C19
two-light window high on the ground floor. A catslide roof and
other extensions to the left are concealed behind a cottage
which is part of the Blake Museum.
INTERIOR: the upper floor of the main block to the right has
C19 cross-bracing to a horizonally planked roof and a 4-light
window to the rear, half of the floor extends to the left in
the upper part of the outshut. The ground floor has a pit with
some cogged machinery which housed the former undershot mill
wheel. The Durleigh Brook runs beneath the mill in a vaulted
rubblestone culvert.
History: recorded in the C14 and known as the Town Mill by the
C17. It was owned in 1709 by Richard Lowbridge who gained
permission from the Mayor and Corporation "to break up the
soil of the streets, lanes, etc in the town in order to convey
water from his mill stream, the Durleigh Brook, to the High
Cross in Cornhill and thence to any streets in the town for
the use of the inhabitants." The pipes were made of halved elm
logs, hollowed out and rejoined, some were recovered in 1795
when the old stone bridge was removed, some in the late C19
when gas pipes were laid and some in the late C20 when new
waterpipes were laid in the High Street.
(Squibbs PJ: Squibbs' History of Bridgwater: Chichester:
1982-: 57; VCH: Somerset: London: 1992-: 215).

Listing NGR: ST3001136882

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Old Mill at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26491828

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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  For the Record