Description

TL 10 NE COTTONMILL LANE

575/24/10036 Sopwell Mill

- II

Former water-powered corn mill and attached dwelling, now house and office. Mid-late C19, with c. 1900 extension and minor C20 alterations. Buff-brown brick with red brick detailing, end and ridge stacks with corbelled caps and Welsh-slated roof coverings.
PLAN: linear arrangement of mill and mill house, with water course and wheelpit to east end of site.
FRONT (north) ELEVATION: Mill of 3 bays and 3 storeys to east, and 3 bay house of 2 storeys to west. Mill part with gabled sack hoist canopy to centre bay, above single first floor doorway and ground floor double door. Red brick storey band at hoist canopy bracket level and between ground and first floor window openings. Windows to flanking bays with metal frames, 4 by 4 panes, set below shallow segmentally-arched heads. Single storeyed extension extends northwards from east side of mill. House part with central doorway with plain boarded door below shallow bracketed hood.. Flanking the doorway are 3-light transomed windows with timber casements, those to the ground floor beneath shallow segmental arches, those to the first floor with stone heads above the eaves line, within gables with plain barge boards. Off-centre ridge stack to right.
REAR ELEVATION : Tall central doorway to mill with flanking windows. 3 windows to first floor, smaller window to centre of upper floor. House part with single storey rear lean- to with C20 window joinery.
SIDE (east) ELEVATION: Tall gable with 2 low windows to upper and single first floor opening . Against ground floor wall, a wide, 3 segment low breast water wheel with socketed outer and intermediate cast iron wheel frames with sheet metal buckets bolted to timber bearers carried by the sockets. Rack and pinion gear attached to timber sluice gateway on north side of wheelpit.
INTERIOR: Mill building with late C19 tension braced metal roof trusses supporting single purlin roof. Timber floors now supported by metal beams set on shallow side wall piers. Stone floor ( first floor) with 3 pairs of stones, but no associated machinery or fittings. Steep open tread stair set within boarded compartments at west end of mill. Ground floor with primary and secondary drives within end compartment enclosed by timber screen. Metal gear wheel attached to water wheel shaft engages bevel gearing to drive secondary shaft with further bevel gearing providing power for vertical shafts driving stones above. House part with panelled doors, moulded architraves and plain stick baluster stair.
A near complete example of a mid C19 water-powered corn mill with attached dwelling , retaining its water wheel and primary and secondary drive machinery.

Listing NGR: TL1528206053

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26537964

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

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey