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Summary

The present mill was built in about 1803. Originally of three storeys it has now been reduced to two and forms an extension of the millhouse. The waterwheel and most of the machinery has gone although the millstones survive. The mill was formerly known as Hawkridge Mill or Senning Mill and there are documentary references dating back to the 15th century.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS62NW/31

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• WATERMILL (XV to XXI - 1401 AD to 2009 AD (Between))

Full description

Andrews, J. H. B., 1962, Chittlehampton, 325 (Article in Serial). SDV82648.

Ford Mill, Chittlehampton. The site of a former mill called Hawkridge Mill in the tihe apportionment of 1838. It was the only mill in the parish recorded in the 1691 survey, then known as Senning Mill.

NDAS, 1989, Untitled Source, 40 (Report - Survey). SDV82649.

The waterwheel does not survive and was sold before the present owner bought the site. The grinding machinery was on the first floor but all that exists in situ is a bedstone. The runner stone has been lifted off and stands at the side of the bedstone. On the top (third) floor there is the sack hoist, with shaft, drum, wheel and two wooden hoppers which are not fixed. The mill and the mill house are in one unit, built of local stone with the window arches and the jambs in red bricks. The roof is slated, and the buildings are in good condition. The leat has been partly filled in around the site of the mill, and is completely blocked up on the road side of the mill. The mill was last working about 1946. Leases for Ford Mill from the 15th to the 19th century still exist. Other details: Visited 1974.

University of the Third Age, 1995, Watermills in North Devon 1994, 47 (Monograph). SDV74915.

The buildings (built in 1803 of stone from a nearby quarry) are in excellent condition. The mill formerly three storeys, has been converted into a two-storey extension of the mill house. Three millstones stand outside the large barn built of the same stone as the house. The owner still has the metalwork of the screw jack (for lifting millstones), but the grain bins, tuns and other woodwork of the mill (apart from structural beams) were too eaten by woodworm to be retained. The leat is dry apart from rainwater which drains into it through pipes. Last used as a mill in 1946. Remembered as a corn mill. Other details: Visited c1994.

Bodman, M., 1998, Water-Powered Sites in Devon, 34 (Report - non-specific). SDV305931.

Other details: 53.

Bodman, M., 2003, Watermills and Other Water-Powered Sites in Devon, 243-244 (Report - Interim). SDV325576.

Mill existed in 1691. Present mill was of three storeys now reduced to two. Other details: Draft Report.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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