Entrance Lodge to Higher Flax Mills
ENTRANCE LODGE TO HIGHER FLAX MILLS, TORBAY ROAD
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1177751
- Date first listed:
- 18-Mar-1986
- List Entry Name:
- Entrance Lodge to Higher Flax Mills
- Statutory Address:
- ENTRANCE LODGE TO HIGHER FLAX MILLS, TORBAY ROAD
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2003-08-12
- Reference:
- IOE01/11214/17
- Rights:
- © Mr John Barker. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1177751
- Date first listed:
- 18-Mar-1986
- List Entry Name:
- Entrance Lodge to Higher Flax Mills
- Statutory Address 1:
- ENTRANCE LODGE TO HIGHER FLAX MILLS, TORBAY ROAD
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- ENTRANCE LODGE TO HIGHER FLAX MILLS, TORBAY ROAD
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Somerset (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Castle Cary
- National Grid Reference:
- ST 63472 32400
Details
CASTLE CARY CP TORBAY ROAD (South side) ST6332 5/109 Entrance Lodge to Higher Flax Mills GV II
Detached cottage, entrance lodge to mill complex. Probably mid C19. Cary stone cut and squared, red brick dressings; plain clay tile roof with overhung gables with decorative bargeboards; ornamental clay tile ridge; brick chimney stacks. Two storeys, 2 bays to road. Lias stone plinth; brick quoins and toothed dressings to openings; cast iron lattice casement windows of honeycomb pattern set in wood frames, 2-light to bay 1, single-light upper bay 2 and below an angled bay window of 1+2+1 lights under hipped tiled roof. Entrance on west gable, in projecting open porch with boarded door and flanking slim windows, with 2-light window over, and vent in gable, all to match. Interior not seen.
HISTORY: Sources indicate that mills have been present at the site of Higher Flax Mills from at least the C17, and that it was used for the flax industry from at least the C19. All the extant buildings date from the late C19, when the site was rebuilt and extended as a flax, hemp and tow factory by the firm of T.S. Donne and Sons. It functioned as an integrated flax factory, combining a water and steam-powered mill with covered and open walks and large-scale warehousing, producing thread, linen warps for the horsehair fabric industry, twine, rope, cordage and webbing. T.S. Donne and Sons closed in the early 1980s. Much of the site is now occupied by the firm of John Boyd Textiles Ltd, who produce horsehair cloth at the site. It is considered to be the only horsehair fabric manufactory in the world which uses powered looms, some of which date fromt he c.1870s.
SUMMARY OF IMPOTRANCE: Higher Flax Mills is one of the largest and best preserved rope and twine works in the West Country; an unusually complete and coherent survival. The mill complex provides clear evidence of the production process for rope and twine manufacture and the type of structures which characterise a significant regional industry in the C19. The current use of much of the site by John Boyd Textiles is of added significance; the company is unique in being the only horsehair weaving factory in the world which uses power looms.
SOURCE: English Heritage, "Higher Flax Mills, Castle Cary, Someret" 2001, NBR No. 105517. McGarvie M, Castle Cary: Avalon Industries, 1980.
Listing NGR: ST6347032401
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 262042
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
McGarvie, M, Castle Cary Avalon Industries, (1980)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 21-Jun-2026 at 14:41:19.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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