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

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26611542

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

• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)