Description

CHAGFORD SX 68 NE 3/95 Yeo Mill approximately 10 metres south-east of Yeo Farmhouse 23.12.86

GV II

Water mill and adjoining shippon and linhay. C17 and C18 core refurbished in mid C19. Granite stone rubble with granite dressings and large quoins; corrugated iron roof (formerly thatch). Plan: the mill is a tall block with its gable end facing south-south-west, say south, onto the road. The wheel house and a saw mill are attached to the right (east) side. There is a linhay at an oblique angle facing backwards into a farmyard and shippon with hayloft over at the back on the same axis as the mill but a lower block. The mill is 3 storeys high. Exterior: the gable front has C19 fixed pane windows with glazing bars to the upper and lower floors and a central loading hatch. Alongside the hatch is a blocked doorway. On the farmyard (western) side behind the linhay there is a large doorway containing double doors with a loading hatch above protected by a large hood made by carrying down the roof. On the other side the wheel house and saw mill have leanto roofs. The linhay is 2 bays and open-fronted with the tallet crossbeam carried on a granite post. A timber post rises from this to carry the roof (Alcock's type S2). The tallet continues to right over a granite walled byre with a door near the right end. The end wall contains a ground floor window and first floor loading hatch. The shippon has a through passage next to the mill and 3 slit windows each side, a hayloft loading hatch on the farmyard side and a dung hatch in the end wall with a boarded cover hung on rollers on an iron rail. All the roofs are gable-ended. Interior: The structural carpentry is all exposed. It is consistently plainly finished and the roofs are made up of A-frame trusses with pegged and sometimes spiked lap-jointed collars. Such detail cannot be accurately dated and can be C18 or C19. However it is the working mill machinery which is of most interest. A leat from the South Teign feeds an overshot wheel. The present wheel dates from 1877. It has wrought iron buckets, a wooden belly and arms, metal rims and metal shaft and has a capacity of 600 cubic feet per minute. It works an ingenious Heath Robinson-looking collection of belt-driven machinery. Originally used for threshing and grinding corn it has been adapted for a variety of purposes. Besides crushing oats and working mechanical devices for the farm and smithy, it drives a circular saw, a lathe, and other equipment associated with saw milling. The wheel also generates electricity. The original plant was first used on the evening of 4th January 1893. As such it was one of the earliest electrical power plants on record. The original plant has been replaced but it is still working although the house was put on mains electricity in 1986. Most of the saw mill machinery still survives. A secondary cow byre in front of the original and a shelter to rear of the linhay are not included in the listing. Yeo Mill is one of an important and well-preserved group of listed buildings including the farmhouse (q.v.), office and garden railings (q.v.)., the Old School House (q.v.)., smithy and cartshed (q.v.) and barn (q.v.). The Perryman family have lived on the site since circa 1450. Source: Devon SMR.

Listing NGR: SX6786786562

External Links

• Wikidata Q26611542

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Recommended Books

• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)