Otterton Mill Including Mill Leat and Sluices to North

Details

OTTERTON THE GREEN, Otterton SY 08 NE 3/176 Otterton Mill including mill leat and sluices to north 11.ll.52 GV II* Working corn mill and museum. Present mill is C18, much rebuilt in the mid C19, but is on the site of a monastic mill which is probably one of the 3 around here mentioned in the Domesday survey. Largish roughly-dressed blocks of brown-coloured local conglomerate sandstone with red brick relieving arches over the windows; slate roof. Corn mill built over a leat containing 2 breast shot waterwheels and milling machinery in a block facing on to the road to the north-north-east (say north). An outshot to right rear now contains a bakery but once housed some machinery belt- driven from the machinery in the main block. Most of the mill appears to be mid C19 but sections of the rear wall are more rubbley and are probably C18 or earlier. Main block is 2 storeys with lofts. Regular but not symmetrical 4-window front of C19 and C20 replacement casements, all with low segmental arches of brick. The leat runs under the mill to right of centre. To right and left are 2-window sections but the left pair have a ground floor doorway and first floor loading hatch between; both are C19 plank stable-type doors. Deep plain eaves and roof is hipped each end. Similar casements on first floor each end. The rear elevation is less regular but includes similar windows and doorways each end (the left one behind the outshot). The window to left of the right window has stone jambs and is presumably from the pre-C19 mill. Bakery has leanto roof and 4 flight of external steps up outer side to the loft over. Good interior. The structure is intact and complete with water wheels and machinery. The wheels and machinery divide the floors into workshops of unequal size; the eastern ones larger than the western ones. The structural carpentry is plain and sturdy and all of it is exposed. Even the steep staircases appear to be original (that is to say mid C19). There is one set each end of the building. The 2 breast shot sheels are set between brick crosswalls with a corridor along the front which contains the sluice controls. The left wheel has timber buckets and is not used. The working wheel has iron buckets. 2 sets of machinery rise through the building either side of the wheels. The eastern set of machinery is working, the other set is less than complete. They are separated by a brick crosswall which is taken up into the loft space as high as the eaves. The roof is mid C19; 7 bays, tie beam trusses with queen posts and raking struts. The queen posts provide a passageway through the loft which is raised above timber storage bins and grain hoppers each side. The platform and floors below include hatches for the hoisting of sacks of grain. On the working side there is an iron chain and mechanical hoist arrangement connected by a belt to the machinery below. The wheel of the other hoist mechanism is a reused crown wheel maybe as old as the C17. The rest of the machinery is basically mid C19 although some of it has been reused from earlier machinery and there are later mendings. The gearing on the ground floor is complete both sides, the main wheels with applewood cogs. There were 4 pairs of grindstones on the first floor, 3 are still in situ. 1 set of composite stone wheels is working in a C20 timber housing. The sets not working are French. They have cast-iron ballances and are inscribed around the centre; one reads 'This stone first used tis true, May 1 1862', the other was first used in 1859. The mill now produces about 3/4 ton of wholemeal flour each week. The mill leat probably has pre-Conquest origins. To north of the mill it leaves the River Otter above a weir. The flow is controlled by a late C19 cast iron vertical sluice set into stone rubble walls. Some of the leat is still lined with elm planks. Nearer the mill a second sluice comprising 2 narrow vertical timber gates separated by a granite post. Both sluices are still working. Otterton Mill is an important working water mill that has been little altered since the mid C19. Because of this it is an excellent museum and interpretation centre. It is also visually an important building in the attractive village of Otterton and close to other buildings with which it is historically connected. The monastry which originally owned a mill here stood on nearby Church Hill and the C12 tower of the Church of st Michael (q.v.) survives from the monastry. At the Dissolution the mill was bought by Richard Duke whose family memorials can be found in the church and whose arms are displayed on the porch of the former manor house, now 1, 2, 3, and 4, St Michaels Close (q.v.) next to the church. Duke initials were once displayed on the garden walls (q.v.) opposite the mill. In 1785 the mill was sold to the Rolles of Bicton House and this family rebuilt the church as it now stands and indeed most of Otterton Village. Sources. Devon SMR and conversation with Densa Greenhow, Director of Otterton Mill museum.

Listing NGR: SY0798685235

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86377

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