Details
SHEFFIELD
SK3385NE ECCLESALL ROAD
784-1/36/280 (South side (off))
28/06/73 Sharrow Mills
GV II*
Snuff mills. c1737, mid and late C18, early C19, with late C19
additions. Coursed squared stone and brick, partly rendered
and colourwashed, with ashlar dressings and gabled and hipped
stone slate and Welsh slate roofs. Mill and tail water goit,
manager's house, counting house, warehouse.
EXTERIOR: mill, 1737, has steep pitched Welsh slate roof with
a coped gable and a gable stack. West front has three 3-light
glazing bar casements and below, 2 similar 2-light casements
flanked to left by a single casement and to right by a much
larger 3-light casement.
Manager's house, to south, late C18, has hipped stone slate
roof with a rear wall stack. Modillion wooden eaves. 2
storeys; 2 window range of 12 pane sashes with brick flat
arches. To right, pedimented wooden doorcase with fielded
6-panel door and blank fanlight. Left return has two 12 pane
sashes on each floor. Rear has a round-headed stair window and
a 6-panel door. To right, projecting stone range containing
boardroom, mid C18, stone slate roof and single brick gable
stack. 2 storeys plus garrets. On each floor, two 3-light
glazing bar casements and above, a similar smaller window to
garret. Right return has a similar single window on each
floor. To right, a lower link range with catslide roof. Single
storey. C20 3-light casement and door.
To right, 2 storey block, stone with Welsh slate roof, with 2
brick gable stacks. Single 2-light casement to left. Below, 2
smaller 2-light casements. Right return has a similar window
and below, a large C18 4-panel door.
Early C19 counting house, to right, brick with stone slate
roof, has a single rear wall stack. 2 storeys; 2 window range.
To right, a canted 2 storey bay window with a single plain
sash above and 3 plain sashes below. To left, a single 12 pane
sash on each floor, with brick flat arches and below, a
central 6-panel door. Right return has a 4-light glazing bar
casement on each floor, the upper one smaller.
Set back rendered warehouse, to right, early C19, has hipped
stone slate roof with single gable and 2 side wall brick
stacks. 3 storeys; 3 window range. To left, C20 casements, 2
and 3 lights, and to right an altered 3-light casement. Above,
two C20 3-light casements. Below, two C20 3-light casements.
Rear has to left a brick addition c1880, single storey with 5
segment-headed openings. To its right a hoist tower, and
beyond, a C18 wing, 3 windows, with large brick gable stack to
the drying room furnace.
INTERIOR has mid C19 overshot iron water wheel, approx 6m
diameter. Below the wheel, a tail water goit culverted under
the River Porter, approx 30m long. C18 cross armed spur wheel
to main shaft, driving 8 pestle and mortar snuff mills on each
of the upper floors. The mills are arranged on an octagonal
wooden stand with framework carrying cast-iron cogs which take
their drive from a central wooden spur wheel. Each cog turns a
weighted cast-iron pestle by means of a slotted crank, and can
be swung in its framework to disengage the drive. There are
subsidiary drives to a hoist and rotating drum sieving and
mixing machines, c1880, on the upper floors, and to a tobacco
cutter in the basement. Strutted king post roof with double
purlins. First floor and ground floor packing rooms have mid
C19 built-in scales and wooden posts to span beams. At the
rear, drying room with cast-iron furnace. Sharrow Snuff Mills
is an outstandingly important water powered industrial
complex. Its early C18 machinery is complete and in use. It is
also unique.
(David Crossley (ed): Water power on the Sheffield Rivers:
Sheffield: 1989-: 81-82).
Listing NGR: SK3386185857
