Description

SJ 45 SE
1/54

EDGE
TILSTON ROAD

Lowcross Mill

II

Water-powered cornmill, 1769 or earlier, heightened and extended
later C18 and C19, on an ancient mill site. The machinery of
timer is probably late C18, partly renewed in cast iron late C19.
Ashlar sandstone and brown brick; roof partly collapsed, partly
cast iron. Two storeys and attic, the upper floors partly
collapsed; three bays.

The wheel-bay, north, is of sandstone and brick with segmental-
arched opening for the tail-race; the brick-fronted mill-bay,
centre, has a timber-lintelled cart-opening with doors removed;
the later storage-bay of brick, south, has a doorway blocked in
brick and a 2-pane casement with glass removed; the second
storey has a three-light oak-mullioned window with glass removed
and a damaged opening to the wheel and mill bays and an opening
to the store-bay. The collapsed roof to the wheel and mill bays
has gables of nearly 45° pitch and a damaged intermediate truss
of oak; the upper floors and lower-pitched roof structure of the
storage bay are intact. The north gable end has a 3-light window
with glass removed to the storey above the wheel-chamber and a
window opening to the attic; the south gable-end has a central
loading-door to each storey and a blocked doorway flanked by
blocked window-openings. The ground level is almost one storey
higher at the rear, east, with a penstock opening, a damaged
doorway to the second storey of the mill-bay and a window-opening
to the storage-bay; there is stonework between the penstock and
the doorway and flush quoins at the south-east corner of the
lower part of the mill-bay, against which the added storage-bay
projects slightly; a short chimney above the kiln-hearth.

Interior: Kiln-hearth and chimney at the south-east corner of
the mill-bay; inscribed stones in the rear wall read R
Fell/Miller 1769, G.B. and, roughly carved, J.B. The machinery,
the feature of greatest interest, stands in a damaged frame of
oak; the high-breast waterwheel circa 15 feet in diameter by 5
feet wide has cast iron shaft and rim and eight pairs of timber
spokes; the buckets are missing; the cast-iron bevelled
pitwheel is circa 8 feet in diameter, driving a cast-iron
wallower circa 3 feet diameter on a timber vertical shaft; the
spur wheel of timber circa 1O feet in diameter, with cogs now
missing, drove two pairs of underdrift timber stone-nuts, one of
which, with stones, remains.
The mill-pool is drained and the leat silted.

Listing NGR: SJ 47019 50368

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26542995

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

• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)