Description

BUCKFASTLEIGH

SX76NW HIGHER MILL LANE, Buckfast
1011-1/1/38 (East side)
06/01/83 Nos.6-9 (Consecutive)

GV II

Row of cottages with probable tenter loft (oral history) over
for industrial use at former woollen mill. Cottages and loft
disused at time of survey (1992). c1800. Local grey limestone
rubble, upper storeys slate-hung with section of
weatherboarding at right end of loft; asbestos slate roof,
gabled at ends.
Plan: large rectangular building, fronting the road. Adjoining
to the right is a probably slightly earlier woollen mill (qv),
at one time part of the same industrial complex. The 2-storey
cottages are 2 rooms on plan, the front rooms heated. Open
tenter loft above with access from the woollen mill. The right
hand cottage appears to have been used as an office for the
woollen mill at one time, with access from inside the covered
cartway at the left end of the mill.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and loft. Asymmetrical 5-window front.
Right-hand cottage/office has a recessed half-glazed front
door to the left and one 2 and one 3-light ground-floor
casement, 4 panes per light. 3 first-floor late C19 or C20
sash windows, two 6-pane and one 4-pane. Weatherboarded
section to loft includes an 18-pane fixed window.
The 3 cottages have plank doors with overlights, door of right
hand cottage to the right, the left hand cottages with
adjacent doors, flanked by 2 and 3-light casements, 3 panes
per light. 2 first floor c1800 16-pane sash windows. Loft
blind on first floor. Left return has weatherboarded gable and
one 6-light loft window to the right with lapped glass, left
hand window blocked. Both windows have vertical bands of brick
blocking below the sills.
Rear elevation has variety of windows: some 4-pane lapped
glass windows and some 4-pane horned sashes. Ground floor has
some 8 over 12-pane ground floor sashes.
INTERIOR: Left-hand cottage has simple detail consistent with
a c1800 date. Slightly chamfered cross beam on ground floor,
plastered-over crossbeam on ground and first floors; probably
original stair to rear, 2 panelled first-floor doors, one
6-panel the upper panels fielded, cast-iron C19 grate. Right
hand cottage has one c1900 grate. Loft preserves graffiti.
Roof: 8 tiebeam trusses, mortised at the apex with high halved
collars and queen posts, mortised into the principals and
strapped on to them with iron shoes.
Historical note: Elizabeth Knowling has researched the
documentation for Higher Mill. There was a mill on the site by
at least 1730, documented as a tucking mill in 1760. In 1800
"Mills" were described as "lately erected on the site
previously occupied by the tucking mill". By 1953 the mills
were re-used as a plating works. Samuel Berry, the owner in
the late C18-early C19, built himself a house at Buckfast
Abbey (qv) from re-used building material.
Physical remains of the wool industry, crucial to the economy
of Devon in the C16, C17 and C18, are rare in the county. This
arrangement with cottages below a tenter loft is unusual, with
a parallel in Chapel Street, Buckfastleigh (qv). An important
surviving example.
(Knowling E: Private archive: 1991-).

Listing NGR: SX7390467389

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26512661

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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