Tracey Mill

Summary

Water-powered corn mill and attached miller’s house, originating in the C17 with later extensions and alterations.

Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the single-storey workshop range to the east of the mill is not of special architectural or historic interest.

Reasons for Designation

Tracey Mill is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a C17 water-powered corn mill which retains an unusually complete and operational suite of equipment and machinery, illustrating the historic configuration along with later refinements and developments;
* the mill building survives well, retaining a collection of structural features illustrating the industrial process, from the intake of grain to the upper floors, and its downward movement through the building for processing;
* as an ensemble with the miller’s house, where the polite C19 façade presents a public face to the more vernacular mill building to the rear;
* the miller’s house, likely to have originated at the same time as the mill, retains a good proportion of its historic fabric, and its general form and structure survive well.

Historic interest:

* documentation provides dates for the late-C19 refurbishment and replacement of mill machinery, providing firm dating evidence for various components.

History

Tracey Mill is understood to have originated in the C17. It stands on a long leat from the River Otter to the north, and the complex includes the mill and miller’s house, along with a reconstructed workshop range (excluded from the listing). An associated agricultural building was converted to domestic accommodation in the 1970s, and is in separate ownership. The building was formerly known as Higher Griggs Mill; a second Griggs mill, some 60m downstream, was lost in the second half of the C20.

The mill has two principal phases of construction, where the original building was extended to the east to provide additional storage. The extension is shown on the 1840s Tithe map, and the joinery suggests a late C17 or C18 date. The roof pitch to this part of the mill was raised, probably in the C19. The waterwheel was enclosed within a wheelhouse in the C19. It was replaced in the late C19 by wheelwright W Mickleburgh of Honiton, to the designs of Mr Brock of Bodley’s Foundry in Exeter. The primary and secondary gears, shafts and bevel wheel were also replaced.

The miller’s house was refronted in the C19. The main range of the building with its two-room plan with central stair hall survives; there has been some internal reconfiguration, in which the kitchen was moved from the main range into an extension to the rear. The old kitchen was changed to a lounge, and a side doorway, and a doorway into the ground floor of the mill, were blocked. The porch is a modern construction.

The mill was converted to domestic use in the late C20. Milling equipment was retained throughout. The wheel was restored by John Coupe in 1987, as recorded on a plaque.

The stone-built range of workshops and garages, excluded from the listing, dates from the mid-1990s. This replaced an earlier timber-framed and weatherboarded range.

Details

Water-powered corn mill and attached miller’s house, originating in the C17 with later extensions and alterations.

MATERIALS: the mill and miller’s house are constructed from stone, rendered, and the wheelhouse is brick and weatherboarding. The eastern extension to the mill is stone and brick on the ground floor and timber framing and weatherboarding above.

PLAN: the mill complex stands to the south of the River Otter and is fed via a leat which begins about 470m to the east. The mill stands to the south of the leat with the waterwheel on the north side, and the miller’s house to the south. A range of workshops, rebuilt in the late C20, project to the east (excluded from the listing).

The main range of the mill is roughly square on plan, and has been extended to the north-east.

The miller’s house adjoins the south elevation of the mill. It is roughly rectangular on plan, with two main cells with central stair hall and an extension to the north-west containing a new kitchen.

EXTERIOR: the mill is two storeys with a tall attic. The roof is pitched, and has a half hip on the north end. Irregular casement windows light each storey. Built upon the north elevation, the wheelhouse is an outshut built above the millrace, and has a brick side wall and weather-boarded end walls. The mill was extended to the north-east with a three-storey range with a pitched roof. On the south elevation, the ground floor is brick, and on the north, stone masonry, while the upper floors are weatherboarded. The south elevation has a doorway and window on the ground floor, and a taking-in door above.

The miller’s house faces south onto the road, and is a three-bay building of two storeys with a pitched roof with brick stacks. The principal elevation is roughly symmetrical, and has a large modern porch to the centre of the ground floor. There is a tripartite casement window to either side of the porch on both floors, and a double casement above the porch.

The west return consists of the gable end of the main range, with a catslide roof and outshut to the north-west, containing the kitchen. On the east return there is a wide external stack with offsets. To the right of the stack are a series of openings, where the large window has replaced a door, formerly entering the old kitchen.

INTERIOR: the main range of the mill adjoins the north side of the miller’s house, adjacent to the old kitchen, with the extension to the eastern side. The mill is arranged over three storeys, with the loft forming the grain and bin floor and housing the sack hoist, beneath which are the stone floor (the first floor) and meal floor at ground level. The waterwheel is breast shot and 3m in diameter with 24 elm buckets. The wooden shaft has a primary gear wheel, which engages with a secondary gear on a higher iron shaft, which drives a bevel wheel and, in turn, the wallower. A great spur wheel then engages with the pair of stone nuts which drive the millstones on the floor above. The gearing is housed within a Hurst frame, and dynamo equipment has been installed later. This main range has an internal timber frame with a pair of deep cross beams and posts. Throughout the main range there are various openings, chutes and features related to the transfer and processing of grain.

On the first floor, there are two pairs of French burr stones, one of which remains in its tun. The upright shaft rises between the stones, and there is a crown wheel above, which engages with two bevel wheels driving lay shafts and the sack hoist in the floor above.

The loft floor is carried on the tie beams of the two principal roof trusses. Grain was raised by a hoist onto a gallery in the centre of the floor, from which it was transferred to bins and in turn, chutes, for processing.

The eastern extension to the mill provided additional storage. Drylining and some subdivision has been introduced on the first floor to provide bed- and bathrooms. There are substantial floor frames with cross beams with supporting posts. In the loft, the original gable truss survives, showing that the roof pitch of this part of the building has been raised.

The miller’s house is a two-cell plan with a central stair hall. On the ground floor are a dining room and a lounge, which occupies the old kitchen. This room has two heavy transverse timber beams with deep chamfers and rough stepped stops. The northern ends rest on a pair of reused posts with vacant mortises. Joists are closely-spaced; some have reeded mouldings. A blocked doorway in the north wall has a moulded lintel with a chamfered Tudor arch. There is a wide, brick-lined fireplace with a chamfered bressumer and a modern stove. A small cupboard to the right appears to have served as a coal store. The dining room has a single transverse beam, unchamfered and bearing the lath marks from having been ceiled. The stair has a slender newel, stick balusters and a moulded handrail; the balustrade on the first-floor landing has been replaced. The two-cell layout survives on the first floor, with some inserted partitioning to create en-suite bathrooms. Some four-panel doors, architraves and skirtings survive.

* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the single-storey workshop range to the east of the mill is not of special architectural or historic interest.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

84926

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Websites
Major, J Kenneth, Tracey Mill, Honiton, Devon: a report, nd, Mills Archive, ref SPAB-13456, accessed 08/12/2023 from https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/7de78c48-4855-3d70-a71b-6c2383829584?component=7d031ab8-4c53-3388-89f0-b7d4fc51048c
Tracey Mill, Honiton, Devon HER ref MDV17046, accessed 08/12/2023 from https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MDV17046&resourceID=104
Leat to Tracey Mill, Honiton, Devon HER ref MDV46376, accessed 08/12/2023 from https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MDV46376&resourceID=104

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