Description

NORTH HILL
SX 27 NE
4/74 Battens Mill
GV II*
Water mill. Probably late C16 and possibly with earlier origins. Stone rubble. Slate
roof with gable ends.
Plan: The original arrangement is uncertain. The mill appears to have been heated by
fireplaces in the left hand gable end and on the first floor in the right gable end.
The floor levels appears as have been altered on several occasions. Overall
rectangular plan with wide entrance on front and C19 overshot wheel to rear. The
mill machinery is of circa later C19.
Exterior: Two storeys. Asymmetrical front elevation. Impressive entrance slightly to
left of centre with lean-to porch roof supported on two granite octagonal piers with
broach stops and moulded bases and moulded caps. The doorway has a rounded chamfered
granite arch. To left, a large garage door has been inserted and to right is a C19
casement with C20 window in a dormer with raking roof. The windows in the left hand
side elevation have granite surrounds. Entrance in loft is right hand gable end.
Overshot wheel to rear with remains of timber buckets.
Interior: The interior has been altered in phases during the C17 and C18 as well as
C19 and C20 and to understand the building a full measured survey is required. The
floor height on left has been raised and the different heights of the windows and
granite chamfered fireplace lintel suggest that the floor level of the first floor
was also altered more than once. On the rear wall are granite corbelled brackets
presumably to support floor joists and the ledge in the wall above these brackets
suggest the height of a later floor level. To right the mill machinery appears
largely intact and should be recorded. There is one pair of mill stones surviving
and the partitions within the loft relate to the C12 machinery, partly obscuring
the earlier features. There is a fireplace in the right hand end wall, the right
hand granite jamb is carved with a lozenge pattern and the left hand jamb is
chamfered. The roof structure appears unusually to be original, or at least of the
late C16 or early C17, 4 heavy clean trusses with curved feet resting on top of the
wall plate. The apices are morticed and the cranked chamfered collars have
dovetailed single notched and lap-joints. It is uncertain how many of the collars
remain.
This is a particularly interesting mill requiring a fuller and more detailed survey.

Listing NGR: SX2720875941

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17533594

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

• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)