Details
TL11NW
270/2/10027
WHEATHAMPSTEAD
LOWER HARPENDEN ROAD
Hyde Mill, Granary and
store (that part in Wheathampstead)
GV
II*
Water-powered corn mill, with attached granary and store, and including the water wheel, milling machinery, and 2 steam engines. Late C19, with minor C20 alterations. Red brick, with horizontal weather-boarding, beneath Welsh slated roof coverings.
Plan: L-shaped range, with mid and attached range attached to Hyde Mill Farmhouse to east (item 44/233) (in Bedfordshire). The mill store extends southwards from the west end of the granary. The water course (the River Lea) passes beneath the mill building.
Mill and Granary: Front (south) Elevation: Stepped range, the mill to the east, of 2 storeys with lofts, and of 4 bays, with projecting flat-roofed Lacombe to attic on the right-hand side, above stacked ground and first floor doors. 8-pane window to right of ground floor door and to left, 2 doorways, one blocked, and 4 pane window to left, all beneath shallow segmental brick arches. Windows of various patterns to first floor. Lacombe with slated cheeks projects from roof slope. Lower 3-bay granary to west, with horizontal weather boarding to upper floor, and slated Lacombe to centre, above ground and first floor doorways. Upper floor with small paned 2-light window. 2-light ground floor window with C20 lean-to to left.
Granary Store extends southwards from west end of granary, and has a hipped end. 3 bays, 2 storeys, with weather-boarded upper floor. 3, 2-light ground floor windows and 2, 2-light small paned upper floor openings. Stacked doorways to centre.
Rear (north) Elevation: Left-hand bay with deep catslide roof. Mill race enters mill through arched opening to centre bay. Above, floor platform of former workshop with line shafting, drive wheel for belting and lathe in situ. To right. 3-light first floor window above access doorway to mill wheelpit. Single storey lean-to addition to range covers east end bay of mill and extends almost full length of lower granary range.
This houses 2 horizontal steam engines, and has 2 doorways and 2, 2-light windows. Above, rear wall of granary with 2 eaves level windows. C20 lean-to against end wall of granary.
Interiors: Mill with fully equipped interior incorporating water wheel, primary and secondary drives, millstones, grain dressing machinery, delivery chutes, grain bins, sack hoist and hoist drives, line shafting and drive wheels for line shaft belting. Timber floors throughout of heavy section with spine beams and vertical posts supporting exposed joists. Timber stairs between floors to attic level. Common rafter roof supported by single purlins. Built-in grain bins to attic floor, and drive wheel, shafting and belt drive for sack hoist. Grain chutes to stone floor below, with 3 pairs of millstones driven by bevel gearing from main horizontal gear wheel set on vertical metal drive shaft rising from ground floor. Ancillary drives to adjacent dressing machinery, fed from wooden chutes above. Ground floor wheelpit with in-situ metal-framed water wheel, 12 feet in diameter and 7 feet wide. Low-breast type wheel, with added curved buckets, the water supply controlled by double rack and pinion shuttle. Vertical metal gear wheel attached to water wheel shaft drives spur gearing on upright shaft mounted on Armfield arch. Rear lean-to with 2 small horizontal steam engines manufactured by N. Varty of Royston, Cambridgeshire. Granary and Store with double purlin roof structures, supported by tie beams, V-struts and principal rafters. The apexes are carried in metal shoes, linked to the tie beams by metal tension-rods.
History: The mill remained in production until 1995, and had been partially adapted for roller milling in the 1920's. The roller machinery, since removed, was housed in the granary. A remarkably complete example of a late C19 water powered corn mill, retaining a complete working interior, and evidence for 2 types of motive power, designed to work together. The mill, granary and store form a group with the attached farmhouse (item 44/233), the sluice gate to the north of the mill (item 44/ 10025) and the adjacent range of farm buildings including the mill office (item 44/10026). See also Hyde CP, South Bedfordshire.
Listing NGR: TL1323616994
