Upwey Mill

Details

WEYMOUTH

SY6685 CHURCH STREET, Upwey 873-1/5/545 (West side) 12/12/53 Upwey Mill (Formerly Listed as: CHURCH STREET, Upwey (West side) The Mill (to rear of Mill House))

GV II*

Corn mill. Dated IG 1802 on stone under hoist. Squared and coursed Portland stone, large flush quoins, slate roof. PLAN: a compact building in 4 floors plus attic, with overshot wheel fed from a leat immediately behind (to the W), and prominent projecting hoist clad and roofed in corrugated-iron. EXTERIOR: in 5 bays, the central bay with hauling doors. Windows are all 3-light horizontal bar wood casements to stone voussoirs with projecting key, but no sills. Bay 3 has a narrow pair of plank doors from a stone landing to a paired stone stair flight with simple iron rail containing a gate opposite the doors; above are plank hauling doors, and the deep projecting hoist housing on props. Low right is a very wide opening with segmental arch, to the wheel. The half-hipped gables each contain a Diocletian window with small-pane glazing, and, in the S end, a 12-pane sash at second-floor level. In the right return is a wide opening giving to the very large iron wheel, approx 7m diameter and approx 2.7m wide. Beyond is a stables and cart-shed building with corrugated-iron mansard roof; there are 2 doors with loading doors in dormers over. The rear has two 3-light casements at first and second floors, with a further fixed 9-pane at first floor; all these to wood lintels with a stop-chamfered soffit under relieving arches. Near the centre at leat level is a plank door on a high stone step, with, low to the left, a brick segmental arch to the wheel-race. The leat has dressed stone revetments adjoining the mill, and a cast-iron drop gate to the sluice. INTERIOR: not accessible for inspection, but known to be complete with machinery, as described in the previous list, with a vertical pit-wheel with wooden cogs driving a vertical shaft and horizontal wheel to 2 pairs of millstones at first floor, and gearing to the upper floor, all in a massive timber frame. The main structure appears to be a series of massive transverse beams in 5 bays. The RCHME volume has a set of drawings which include the machinery layout.

HISTORICAL NOTE: in a letter of 1910 Thomas Hardy writes: "Overcombe Mill (in The Trumpet Major) is a composite picture of Upwey and Sutton Poyntz, containing features of both". This would be very appropriate, as the Mill would be very new at the time referred to in Trumpet Major (viz 1805). The mill, which was still operating until 1991, was empty and unused at the time of survey, but, with the adjacent Mill House (qv), is of historical and architectural significance. (RCHME: Dorset, South-East: London: 1970-: 367; Scott E: The Water Mill at Upwey: Weymouth: 1989-).



Listing NGR: SY6625085076

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

467408

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Scott, E, The Water Mill at Upwey, (1989)
Inventory of Dorset II South East, (1970), 367

End of official list entry

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