Sedgewood Mill & Attached Chimneystack, Higher Hurdsfield, Cheshire East

Summary

Former pumping engine house for a small coal mine, late-C18. Converted for domestic use, probably in the early-mid C19, with later extensions. Coursed, squared, buff-sandstone rubble with Kerridge stone-slate roof, Welsh slate roofs to later extensions. Substantial, truncated stone chimneystack to rear, which now forms part of a neighbouring property. Mainly three storeys.

Description

MATERIALS: Coursed, squared, buff-sandstone rubble with Kerridge stone-slate roof, Welsh slate roofs to the later extensions.

PLAN: Three-storey former engine house with one room to each floor and later extensions attached to the south side.

EXTERIOR: Due to changing ground levels the original part of the former engine house appears as 2-storeys on the east side and 3-storeys on the south and west sides. The 2-bay west elevation has tall, multipaned casement windows set to the centre of the ground and first floors with slender stone lintels and sills. Set to the ground floor right is a doorway with a later studded door. The uppermost storey is blank, but set to the top of the south gabled, 'bob wall' return is a long horizontal, C20, 4-light multipaned casement window with a stone lintel; this has been inserted into the space from which the engine house's beam would have projected and the rest of the opening has been in-filled. Attached in front, below the window, is a late-C19/early-C20, 2-storey, lean-to extension, which is constructed of the same materials as the main building, with the exception of a Welsh slate roof. The extension was rebuilt in 2008 and has a multipaned casement window to the ground floor on the west side and a further window to the first floor on the south side. Attached to its east side on the higher ground level is a small, single-storey, late-C19, lean-to outbuilding. Attached to the south-west corner of the rebuilt extension is a single-storey kitchen extension dating to 2008, which is not of special interest. The former engine house's 2-storey east elevation has a late-C19, external, rubble-stone stair with sandstone slab treads and landing, and a simple wrought-iron balustrade. Attached to the north-east corner of the building is a substantial, whitewashed-stone, external boiler stack that has been truncated and now forms part of the neighbouring property.

INTERIOR: Having been converted for domestic use, and altered further in the C20 and C21, no machinery survives within the interior and most areas have been modernised, although some early ceiling beams survive in places. There are no chimneybreasts or fireplaces, concurrent with the building's original industrial use. The ground floor contains a lounge and entrance/stair hall; the latter spanning into the rebuilt Victorian extension. The lounge contains a blocked-up opening to the north wall, which would probably have originally been used as the entrance for bringing machinery components in and out of the building. A stair flight with a winder at the mid-point is located in the rebuilt Victorian extension and leads up to a landing accessing a bathroom. A step up into the main part of the building accesses a narrow hallway, which runs alongside the eastern wall with a bedroom off to the west side. A stair flight at the end of the hallway, which is lit by a modern skylight, accesses two rooms on the second floor and also the external stair.

History

Sedgewood Mill is believed to have been constructed in the late-C18 as a pumping engine house for a small coal mine, and would have contained an atmospheric steam engine (Newcomen engine) originally; a significant investment for a small mine. The engine would have been used to drain the water from the mine workings, which are located to the north-west of Sedgewood Mill. The building was later converted for domestic use, probably in the early-mid C19, and a two-storey extension was added in the late-C19/early-C20, which was rebuilt in 2008 when a disused pumping shaft was uncovered below the bob wall; the shaft was subsequently in-filled and capped. A further single-storey extension was also added in 2008.

A building is depicted in the location of Sedgewood Mill on the 1849 tithe map, and the plot, which is described as three cottages and gardens (suggesting that the building was in domestic use by this time), is recorded as being owned by Thomas Ward, who also owned neighbouring plots and buildings. Both Sedgewood Mill and a neighbouring cottage now known as Woodside, are depicted on the first, second and third edition OS maps published in 1873, 1897 and 1909 respectively, and are annotated as 'Woodend Cottages' on the latter two maps. Sedgewood Mill has also been known as Rose Cottage in the mid-C20.

In the late-C18/early-C19 the local area around Kerridge, Rainow, Bollington and Swanscoe was littered with small coal mines, employing wage labourers. In August 1834 an atmospheric steam engine for winding and pumping was advertised for sale by a 'Mr Ward' at 'Swanscoe Mine', which probably refers to Sedgewood Mill. The mines in the Swanscoe area were worked by William Clayton in the late-C18/early C19. For further reading on the Poynton area's mining history the reader is directed to Shercliff, Kitching & Ryan's book, which is detailed in the sources section below.

Reasons for Listing

Sedgewood Mill is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Rarity: it is a rare survival of a late-C18 Newcomen engine house
* Historic interest: it illustrates the industrial mining heritage of the Swanscoe and Poynton area in the late-C18/early-C19; an important centre for small-scale mining
* Architectural interest: despite later alteration the building's industrial origins remain clearly readable in the physical fabric, and it is an interesting example of an early conversion of an industrial building into a domestic residence

External Links

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