Cottage, 32m south-East of Hewish Mill Farmhouse

Summary

A mill worker's cottage dating from the late C18 and extended in the early C19. In recent years, the ground floor has been used for agricultural purposes.

Reasons for Designation

The cottage at Hewish Mill Farm is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest: it is a good survival of a modest late-C18 vernacular building that was extended in the early C19 and is largely unaltered since this date
Intactness: its plan and fabric are well preserved
Historic interest: very few of these relatively humble and once common cottages now remain unaltered where they remain at all, making the cottage at Hewish Mill Farm an increasingly rare survival
Group Value: it has strong group value with other C18 buildings at the Farm, including the mill, miller's house and drying kiln

History

There has been watermill on this site in Hewish since at least the late C13. A lease of 1737 describes a 'Newly built house and stable beside the mill, the use of an oat mill and drying house & payment of 1s'. In 1793 the mill was destroyed by fire but was rebuilt in the same year by Robert Hull of Dowlish Wake who assigned a lease to John Bartlett in 1795. A newspaper advertisement of 1829 refers to 'Hewish Mills Crewkerne, together with a dwelling house, bake hse, cottage and other necessary buildings'. By this date it would appear that the kiln which was described in 1737 as a 'drying house' was being used as a bake house. The mill continued to operate until 1925 when the site became a farm and was re-named Hewish Mill Farm. The overshot waterwheel and ironwork were removed during the Second World War and the sluice was taken out in 1976.

The detached cottage at Hewish Mill Farm appears from its fabric to date from the late C18. It may have originally been built for a mill worker. The building is very little altered since at least the early C19; the plan form remains constant in the Ordnance Survey map series covering the period 1889-1929.

Details

A mill worker's cottage dating from the late C18 and extended in the early C19. In recent years, the ground floor has been used for agricultural purposes.

MATERIALS: built of stone rubble with a pitched roof of double Roman tiles and an off-centre ridge stack of brick. There are timber casement windows with leaded panes.

PLAN: this two-storey cottage is oriented north-west to south-east and has a two-unit plan of single depth. It has been built in two phases; the bay to left being a slightly later, probable early-C19 addition. A lean-to of brick and some modern blockwork has been added to the front (north-east) of the building in the C19, and there are further additions to each gable end. These C19 and C20 structures have undergone alteration and are not of interest.

EXTERIOR: the front (north-east) elevation faces onto the farmyard and is partly masked by the C19 brick lean-to. A change in the masonry from coursed to random stone rubble and a straight joint which aligns with the chimneystack mark the extent of the original part of the building, the bay to the left (east) being a later addition. The main doorway is accessed from the lean-to and a window opening to the right of this may mark the position of the entrance (blocked) to the original part of the cottage. The windows are simple timber casements with leaded lights and iron fittings; all of two-lights except for the tall stair window to the right of the lean-to. The rear elevation has a plain plank door to the right-hand bay. Also to the ground-floor are two casement windows and matching two-light windows to the first floor.

INTERIOR: the ground floor has two principal rooms. The left-hand (southern) one appears to have previously been used as a dairy, but retains a roughly-hewn ceiling beam. The room in the north half of the building has a C19 cast-iron range set into the chimney breast which has a simple stone fire surround. A plank door with strap hinges leads to a straight elm staircase and the first floor. The walls and joinery to the first floor are whitewashed. All the doors throughout the interior are plank and batten. The roof has simple A-frame trusses and a single row of purlins, although one section has been replaced with a simple rafter roof.

Sources

Websites
A History of the County of Somerset (1978) Volume 4, 4-38, accessed from http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=117079

End of official list entry

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