Description

CREWKERNE

ST4409 SOUTH STREET
876-1/7/161 (South side)
06/09/74 Old Viney Bridge Mill

II

Mill. Late C18/early C19 with later C19 additions.
MATERIALS: limestone rubble with slate and pantile roofs.
PLAN: linear plan at an almost right angle to South Street
with former engine house flanked by workshops for weaving etc.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; the (north) left-hand range of 6-window
range has a Ham Hill stone Tuscan doorcase with an open
pediment, ornamental fanlight and 2 raised and fielded panels
of a former 6-panel door; all the windows have gauged
segmental stone arches; cast-iron frames of 5 rows of 7 panes
to the ground floor, C20 casements to the first floor. The
engine house, attached to the right of 2-storeys, one-window
range, with C20 high sliding double doors with fixed 8/8
window immediately above.
To the right of the engine house is a 5-window range; 4
similar cast-iron windows and some C20 to first and ground
floor.
The next late C19 range is single-storey; 6-window range with
segmental brick arches under wooden lintels and cast-iron
frames similar to the first range. C20 doors, one to the far
right, and the inside right window is raised above a door.
To the right is a cottage with a datestone of 1793, probably
repositioned, in the right gable end below a brick stack; the
facade and eaves level is continuous with the range to the
left but the roof is separate and more steeply pitched over 2
storeys; one-window range. The window to the right-of-centre
of the first floor is a 3-light casement at eaves level, the
3-light casement below is under a wide gauged segmental arch,
the doorway to the left, now a window, has a flat arch. A mid
C19 range to the far right, with a pantile roof, is 7-window
range with 4 large plates to tie-bars between the floors,
double doors to both floors to left-of-centre and a lower,
pantiled-roofed loading bay to the left.
INTERIOR: the engine house has a 2-storey arched recess to a
former flywheel in the left-hand wall and an early C19 queen
post roof structure; heavy beams to floors supported by later
C19 cast-iron columns.
HISTORY: an early watermill existed near this site before the
present structure which became the centre of a cottage
industry and community producing webbing for girths, etc. The
production of webbing, sailcloth, hair seating and later
shirts was the dominant industry in Crewkerne, girth-web
weaving being documented from 1698. This factory was set up in
1789 by Samuel Spark (d.1827) a Crewkerne solicitor, and
Bartholemew Gidley (d.1812).
(Victoria County History: Somerset: Oxford: 1978-: P.21).

Listing NGR: ST4487609155

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26503739

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

• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)