Description

TL 7924 STISTED KING'S LANE
(west side)

7/265 Stisted Mill
21.12.67

GV II

Water mill, now a house. C18, extended in C19, converted 1977. Timber framed,
weatherboarded, roofed with handmade red plain tiles. Rectangular plan facing
SE, one storey and lofts on 2 floors. C19 single-storey extension to left,
roofed with slate, and double garage beyond, with lean-to roof of corrugated
iron. Ground floor, in main building, one window of 25 fixed lights, one C20
sash of 6 lights, 3 C20 casements; one window of 16 lights in left extension.
One C20 casement below lucam, 2 more in gabled dormers. One small C20 light in
gabled hoist, one C20 casement in gabled lucam on straight brackets; the sides
of the brackets are weatherboarded. C20 door. One pair of vehicle doors in
left extension, 2 pairs beyond. The main building has a gambrel roof enclosing
2 floors. The left extension has a roof of low pitch. 2 C20 stacks and one
metal flue in rear pitch of main roof, not rising above ridge. The rear
elevation has on the ground floor 3 windows of 25, 25 and 24 lights
respectively, and 3 C20 casements; 3 casements of 9 lights in gabled dormers,
and 2 C20 in-pitch roof lights. French window. Many of these windows are
accurate replicas made in 1977 from existing originals of the C18 and C19.
Transverse beams on grown knees secured by forelocks. Primary straight bracing
in walls, fully jointed main frame. Internally there is evidence that the mill
was extended to the right in the C18. The house occupies the right part of the
main building, and the right extension. The left end has been partitioned off,
containing all the machinery as described in 1976: 'Today the form of the mill
suggests it is still the same building which was running a pair of fulling
stocks as well as grinding corn in 1775. Its stone floor is so low that the pit
wheel rises above its level, so that the wallower and spur wheel cannot be
accommodated under this floor as in most water-mills. To overcome this the
stones are overdriven, a style more usual in windmills and nowhere else found on
these Essex rivers. From the spur wheel up on the stone floor the stone
spindles (or quants as they are called in this drive) descend into the stone
maces from above, their square shape agitating the shoe without needing a
damsel. Under the stones, spindles are still required to raise and lower them
on conventional bridge trees. There is a suggestion (as at Codham) that a crown
wheel was once squeezed in on the stone floor as well, but the present one is on
the floor above, working two lay shafts nicely engineered for various vanished
machines. .... (The) wheel, whose wooden paddles were replaced by iron in 1920,
turned the stones till the end of the Second World War and worked the sack hoist
till 1960 during the mill's final years when an oil engine drove a hammer mill.
Surprisingly, there is no by-valve. It is a long walk up the river to the
sluice which had to be used instead' (item 7/266, q.v.). (H. Benham, Some Essex
Water Mills, 1976, 59-60). 2 pairs of French stones, wooden upright shaft, iron
great spur wheel and crown wheel. Breast-shot wheel with cast iron rims and
hubs and wooden spokes, mounted on an iron wheelshaft which carries the iron
pitwheel engaging the iron wallower. The C19 extension to the left formerly
housed a steam engine and ancillary machinery, now missing except the overhead
shafting. The chimney to the rear, shown in a photograph of c.1910, was
demolished soon afterwards (F. Spalding Collection, Essex Record Office).

Listing NGR: TL7912924484

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26464839

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)