Summary
A former multi-storey corn mill of the late eighteenth century with an associated barn and attached range, in coursed sandstone with stone slate and corrugated tin roofs.
Reasons for Designation
Carlinghow Mill, a late eighteenth century former corn mill with attached barn and range, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Date: the main mill building, the barn and the south-west range date to the late eighteenth century and therefore fall into the category of buildings that are usually listed;
* Historic interest: the survival of the buildings of a pre-industrial corn mill in an urban area is relatively rare;
* Integrated site: the mill building and barn form an integrated whole which show a range of the activities in a corn mill operation;
* Architecture: the architecture of mill and barn demonstrate in their form the processes involved in the milling of corn and the working of a water-powered mill;
* Development: the later, twentieth century use of the mill is of interest in demonstrating adaptive re-use of industrial buildings to accommodate changing economic circumstances.
History
The first OS map, published in 1854, names the mill as a corn mill, and a manorial corn mill is recorded from the seventeenth century, owned by the Copley family and with two pairs of grindstones (later four) and a dam extending to Wilton Park. The surviving buildings are late eighteenth-century with nineteenth- and twentieth-century extensions and alterations. Carlinghow continued to operate as a corn mill into the later nineteenth century and is marked as such on the 1894 OS 1:2500 map.
By the early twentieth century the buildings were derelict and by 1933 the water supply had been cut off. The Exley family bought the mill in c.1914 and operated it as a mill furnishers, buying and selling on mill equipment. Line shafts were introduced after the Second World War to run lathes used in the reconditioning of textile machinery.
A block attached to one side of the main mill was rebuilt after collapse in the late twentieth century, while another on the other side, which originally housed the water wheel, collapsed in the early twentieth century and is partially rebuilt. The buildings are now largely used for storage and as offices.
Details
A former water mill, dating to the eighteenth century, with additions and alteration in the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries, now principally storage.
MATERIALS: the mill is in coursed squared sandstone, with a pitched stone slate roof. Other attached buildings are principally stone, some coursed, with some brick infills and later walls, with stone slate or corrugated tin roofs.
PLAN: the buildings comprise three elements, linked by later blocks which are excluded from the listing. The former main mill building with an extension to the rear with a truncated chimney stands at the north-east end of the site. A barn aligned south-west to north-east stands to its west, separated by a narrow passage, and a further range extends south-east from the western end of the barn. The former water wheel pit is attached to the north-east side of the main mill. The buildings are set in a large open yard on ground sloping to the south-east, which also contains various other buildings of different dates which are excluded from the listing.
EXTERIOR:
MAIN MILL: this has three storeys plus attics, with a lower portion to the rear. The main gabled elevation, facing south-east, has a central entrance with stone jambs and a window to either side with flat face stone mullions and modern glazing. Above the door is an altered large taking in opening with concrete lintel and windows similar to those below. The second storey has a smaller taking in door and similar windows. In the pediment is a Venetian window with partially replaced stone architrave. The right return (north-east elevation) is partially obscured by the lower floor of a block in the course of being rebuilt after the collapse of an original building; this building is excluded from the listing. The upper part of the north-east wall of the mill shows the scar of this building as it previously attached to the mill. A doorway into the mill is visible toward the left side, and a further blocked opening is higher up to the right. The left return (south-west elevation) of the mill is attached to a rebuilt office block by a first floor link, with windows on ground floor and second floor level, with modern glazing. To the rear of the main mill is a two storey extension on rising ground, with windows on its north-east elevation blocked with breeze-blocks. Windows to the rear of the main mill are also blocked apart from a Venetian window in the pediment which has a renewed stone architrave. The rear extension block has altered openings to the rear and on its south-west elevation, with modern glazing, stone architraves and including an entrance on the south-west side. A square-plan, truncated chimney is attached to the north-west corner of the block, in stone up to the level of the roof and red brick above with a stone capping.
BARN: this is in coursed stone with quoins. It has central opposed four-centred arched wagon entrances with long and short jamb stones and voussoirs. Four square windows are at first floor level on the north-west side, two blocked, with ventilation slits at ground floor level. The south-east side is largely obscured by other buildings. The roof is corrugated metal. The south-west gable end has a single first floor opening.
ATTACHED RANGE: attached to the barn and extending south-east from its western end is a single storey block with a pitched, corrugated metal roof, which forms the other side of the U and has a gable end to the south-east. Its south-west side has altered openings and some brick and breeze-block infill. The north-east side has a doorway with a heavy stone lintel and a stone mullioned window.
INTERIORS: the ground floor of the mill interior is a largely open space with brick pillars supporting a concrete ceiling and concrete stairs leading up to the first floor. The first floor is similar, with some remains of line shafts from the second half of the twentieth century and timber beams supporting a wooden ceiling. An opening to the south-west side leads into a storage area within the link to the rebuilt office block. The second floor is also similar, with further remains of line shafts and a steep open tread wooden stair to the attic floor. There are exposed roof timbers in the attic floor, with a mixture of machine and hand cut timbers forming the trusses and purlins. The trusses are queen post, with additional braces and pegged purlins above the collar, and a second purlin below the collar. The common rafters are late twentieth/early twenty-first century, some of the other timbers appear modern and there are steel supporting beams and braces on some of the trusses.
The interior of the barn is open, and the roof timbers have been replaced in the late twentieth/early twenty-first century. The south-west range has king post trusses of which the tie beams are large and one set of purlins also substantial, but other timbers are lighter and machine cut. A further set of massive tie beams sits at a lower level, emerging from the walls. The roof covering and common rafters are modern. Alongside the outer mill wall are the remains of the water wheel pit.
EXCLUSIONS
Pursuant to s.1 (5A)(a) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 ('the Act') it is declared that the rebuilt office block standing immediately to the south-west of the main mill, on the footprint of an earlier building, a partially rebuilt block immediately to the north-east of the main mill, and a small, twentieth-century block attached to the gable end of the south-west range are not of special architectural or historic interest and are excluded from the listing.
Pursuant to s.1 (5A)(b) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the interior of the rear extension of the main mill building, now converted to office use with modern partitions, is not of special architectural or historic interest.
