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Summary

18th or earlier 19th century mill building with waterwheel by Stenner and Gunn Ltd.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1333888: MILLER'S COTTAGE AT ASHTON MILL

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX88SW/104
• Old Listed Building Ref (II)
• Royal Albert Memorial Museum Accession Number: 19/2008

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• WATERMILL (XVIII to XXI - 1701 AD to 2009 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1907, 91SE (Cartographic). SDV290511.

'Ashton Mills (Disused)' shown on 1906 6 inch Ordnance Survey map. Building shown but not marked on 1963 map.

Ordnance Survey, 1963, SX88SW (Cartographic). SDV340864.

Department of Environment, 1988, Ashton, 21 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV284341.

Mill, incorporating former cottage, now used as store. 18th century or earlier with 19th century alterations. Granite and freestone rubble and cob, weatherboarded in the gable ends; corrugated iron roof, gabled at ends; projecting end stack with set-offs and truncated brick shaft.
Plan: rectangular on plan: the mill, to the west, with a disused 20th century undershot waterwheel (leat still intact); the former cottage to the east.
Exterior: 2 storeys and attic. The west elevation preserves an iron undershot wheel with timber arms and iron floats, wheel made by Stenner and Gunn Ltd, Tiverton. Section of good dressed coursed granite masonry construction adjacent to and downstream of the wheel; 2 ground floor 2-light windows, the left hand window with 19th century brick dressings and lapped glass. 4 small first floor 1-light windows with 19th century brick dressings and lapped glass plus one small square window to the left; 1-light window in gable. The left return has a doorway approximately in the centre, a 1-light ground floor window and a 2-light first floor 19th century timber casement with glazing bars. The rear elevation preserves the stack of the former cottage, flanked by doorways with a window and first floor doorway to the left and a first floor doorway to the right. The sluice gate is fixed to grooved granite posts. Interior: not inspected. The present owners have a complete list of owners and occupiers of the mill from 1780 to the present day. Forms a good group with the Miller's cottage, visible from the Chudleigh road across The Teign.

Bodman, M., 1998, Water-Powered Sites in Devon, 38 (Report - non-specific). SDV305931.

Other details: No 14.

Bodman, M., 2003, Watermills and Other Water-Powered Sites in Devon, 270-1 (Report - Interim). SDV325576.

Ashton Mills were described in 1785 as a stone cob and thatch house and adjoining Water Corn Mill with a bakehouse, stable and pigsties. In 1803 Ashton Mills included an iron-mill with a 12ft diameter water wheel, a balling furnace, two tilt hammers and a blast for making iron. The property also included a dwelling house and a Grist Mill with two pairs of mill stones. When visited in 1996 the undershot water wheel on the river side of the buildings had six arms and curved paddles.The thatched miller's house was located next to the mill and there was water in the leat. Other details: Draft Report.

Watts, M., 2008, Archaeological Monitoring of Groundworks at Lower Ashton Mill (Report - Watching Brief). SDV340863.

Monitoring of groundworks associated with the creation of a leat diversion channel revealed unstratified fragments of 19th and 20th century pottery, and small pieces of worked iron, coal and coke, presumably connected with the iron mill that was recorded here in the early 19th century. A single base sherd of green-glazed south Somerset type coarseware dated to the 17th or 18th century was also found. Ustratified material and debris was also removed from the wheelpit/tailrace, comprising silt and loose stone, broken glass and pottery, metal objects, including some car parts, all of which dated from the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV2625 - Unnamed Event
• EDV4401 - Monitoring of groundworks at Lower Ashton Mill

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