Old Mill Building at Longfords Mills

Details

In the entry for:-

ST 89 NE MINCHINHAMPTON AVENING VALLEY

7/167 Old Mill building at Longfords Mills (Buildings nos 2, 5, 7 and 9)

GV II

The entry shall be amended to read:

ST 89 NE MINCHINHAMPTON AVENING VALLEY

7/167 Old Mill building at Longfords Mills (Building No 2)

GV II*

Mill building. Early/mid C18 (shown on 1766 map), altered 1828. Coursed and roughly dressed limestone; gabled stone slate roof. Rectangular 10-bay plan. Four storeys. West side; 9-window fenestration, all 3-light with flat mullions and many with original leaded iron casements; ground floor obscured by later extensions. Two datestones, one of 1703 and the other of 1828. North gable has 3 large 4-light casements, upper one with fixed leaded lights. East elevation has similar 9-window fenestration; timber lintel over double doors; 2 probably early C19 segmental arches to former wheel pit on left (south); segmental relieving arch above timber lintel over tall (2-storey) blocked arch on right. Iron overbridge (dated WP 1865) is carried over public road into upper floor of Building 13 (q.v.) to north west. Interior: two water wheels to south end were removed, together with first floor, in order to accommodate machinery including Bellis and Morcom steam engine of 1904 and Gordon water turbine of c1915. Timber beams throughout have marks made by driveshafts and mortices with peg holes. Vent openings beneath window seats, with sliding shutter and grille to vent opening onto early C19 quarter-turn winder stair to north west. 10-bay collar-truss roof with trenched purlins and diagonally-set ridge purlin; split rafters and torched soffits. The site has been in use since the C14 for cloth making. The mill was leased from Thomas Pinfold by Thomas Playne in 1759, being continually occupied by the Playnes for woollen manufacture until it was vacated in June 1990. A map of 1766 showing land belonging to John Pinfold shows a complex of buildings around the lower mill site, in which Building 2 is shown as a fulling, grist and gigmill. An early C20 photograph shows dormer windows on east side of roof. The RCHM suggests that the mill building was used for manufacturing not warehousing, which would make it comparable in scale to later examples in Gloucestershire and elsewhere in the country. The 1766 plan shows a mill leat passing by the south end of the building, the location and stonework of the two wheel arches in the rear wall suggesting that they may have been a later insertion; the upper storeys were probably originally hand-powered, the finishing of cloth being its most likely function. N.M. Herbert, "Minchinhampton", in V.C.H. Glos xi, 1976, pp 184-207; and J. Tann, Gloucestershire Woollen Mills, 1967; RCHM report 1991.

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ST 89 NE MINCHINHAMPTON AVENING VALLEY

7/167 Old Mill building at Longfords Mills (Building Nos 2, 5, 7 and 9)

GV II

Mill building with attached ancillary wing. Late C18. Coursed rubble limestone; stone and Welsh slate roofs. Four-storey main block with attached 3-storey block forming L-plan. West side: 9- window fenestration, all 3-light with flat mullions, many with original leaded iron casements. Ground floor obscured by later outbuilding which is not of special interest. Two datestones, one 1703, other 1828. Larger casements providing north light in gable end. East side: fenestration as to west, bay to right having timber lintel and relieving arch of former throughway, now infilled. Segmental arches to ground floor with glazed infill, this now well below level of present access roads. Similar flat- mullioned 2 and 3-light mullioned casements to secondary block - many blocked. Attached parallel-roofed outbuilding on north side has taller lean-to outbuilding at west end. Iron overbridge (dated WP 1865) is carried over public road into upper floor of block to north west (This block is not of special interest). Interior not inspected. This is one of the clothing mills recorded on an 1813 map. Later building (q.v.) adjoins to south. (N.M. Herbert, 'Minchinhampton' in V.C.H. Glos xi, 1976, pp 184- 207; and J. Tann, Gloucestershire Woollen Mills, 1967)

Listing NGR: ST8666799211

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

132960

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Gloucester, (1976), 184-207
Tann, J, Gloucestershire Woollen Mills, (1967)

End of official list entry

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