Description

TQ 53 37 SPELDHURST GROOMBRIDGE HILL (east side),
OLD GROOMBRIDGE
16/500 Mill adjoining to east of
Mill House

GV II*

Watermill. Probably late C17, maybe early C18. Lower part of the east end
wall is coursed sandstone with English bond red brick on top up to first floor
level. Side walls are Flemish bond red brick up to first floor level.
Timber-framed above, front and most of end wall is hung with peg-tile, rear
and lower part of end wall is weatherboarded. Peg-tile roof.

Plan: Disused watermill facing north north west, say north. It is a single
cell building built onto the end of Mill House (q.v.) to right (west) and left
end is terraced into the bank of the dam built to create the large ornamental
lake in front of Groombridge Place (q.v.) but which also provided the head far
the watermill. Mill race used to run past the rear of the building but is
disused and has been filled in. Waterwheel has been removed; an overshot
wheel is reported.

Ground floor houses the machinery, stone floor and bin floor in the roofspace.

Exterior: Irregular 2-window front of old casement windows and upper windows
still contain old diamond panes of leaded glass. Doorway roughly central and
contains an old plank door in a plain solid frame. Roof butts the higher Mill
House to right. It is gable-ended to left and extended to shelter the loading
hatches below. 2-flap loading hatch door at stone (first) floor level with
leaded diamond pane window to left, a boarded window to right and shuttered
window in the gable.

Interior: Plain but sturdy carpentry detail including a 2-bay roof carried an
a tie beam truss with staggered butt purlins. Apart from missing waterwheel
the mill machinery remains intact and some may be early. Heavy framed hurst
frame containing gearing (mostly timber wheels and teeth) driving 2
grindstones. Sack hoists and other features intact.

The mill is an interesting estate building and one of the very important group
of related buildings in Old Groombridge.

Listing NGR: TQ5306837581

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547474

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

• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6