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Summary

A watermill is first recorded here in 1293. The present building is partly late medieval remodelled in the 18th century. Of stone rubble and cob it is almost square on plan with a smoke-blackened thatched roof. Originally and latterly used as a corn mill, it also appears to have functioned as a fulling mill in the 15th and 18th centuries.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1262979: STOCKLEIGH MILL

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS80SE/35
• Old Listed Building Ref (II)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• WATERMILL (Built, XIII to XVII - 1201 AD to 1700 AD (Between))

Full description

South West Heritage Trust, 1838-1848, Digitised Tithe Maps and Transcribed Apportionments (Cartographic). SDV359954.

Recorded as House and Mills (plot 361) on the Stockleigh Pomeroy Tithe Apportionment.

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

Complex marked as Stockleigh Mill (Corn).

Hoskins, W. G., 1959, Devon and its People, 64-65, 67 (Monograph). SDV337613.

No watermill is recorded in Domesday Book for Stockleigh Pomeroy but one is recorded in a survey of the manor made in 1293 and a list of tenants on the manor includes the name of Richard the Miller. The mill was at first used for grinding corn but is recorded as a fulling mill in 1428.

Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, 1982, Mills Index (Un-published). SDV12998.

Site visit: July 1982. Mill empty.

Department of Environment, 1985, Stockleigh Pomeroy, 155 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV42426.

Waterwheel, last used for fulling. First recorded 1293; present structure partly late medieval; remodelled C18. Stone rubble and cob walls with steep hipped, almost pyramidal, wheat-reed thatched roof. Square 1-room plan with wheel position partly enclosed to north side, probably breast shot. Built into bank to east.2 storeys. East front, ie first floor only at road level, has doorway, left with ledged door and old oak unglazed window, right, with closely spaced mullions. Similar window to south wall, ground floor and larger opening over. West front has leat exit, left with old unglazed oak window over within walling of timber framing with wattle and daub. Timber lacing continues from 1st floor sill level to almost half building length. Window to right of leat exit within rubble walling rebuilt C18 or C19. Wide doorway to ground floor right with pair of old ledged doors. Oak lintels. Old oak rafter ends project from cob under eaves.
Interior: has old wheel shaft in situ and timberwork for holding millstones. Otherwise machinery removed. Heavy chamfered oak beams support old flooring. Some older reused timber. Oak roof is probably C18 but is smoke-blackened possibly from forge. C15/C16 oak jointed cruck, ie part of cruck post and truss blade, survives from earlier roof in west wall towards north end. In spite of the machinery having been removed this is a very unspoilt small watermill.

Turton, S. D. + Weddell, P. J., 1993, Archaeological assessment of SWW Crediton area water supply: Stage II, 5 (Report - Assessment). SDV337624.

Bodman, M., 1998, Water-Powered Sites in Devon, 5.37 (Report - non-specific). SDV305931.

Watts, M., 2002, Stockleigh Mill (Site Visit). SDV362864.

The mill building is described as partly late medieval, remodelled in the 18th century in the listing description. It is almost square on plan, about 8.5m wide (south - north) by 6.7m deep (east- west) at first (stone) floor level. The walls are of stone rubble and cob and the roof, of three structural bays, is steep, fully hipped and thatched. The roof timbers are smoke-blackened; the listing description suggests the structure is 18th century and blackened 'possibly from a forge'. There are the remains of a jointed cruck (?16-17th century) projecting from the wall to the left of the window in the north-west corner at first floor level. The principal entry to the ground floor is at the south end of the west elevation and there is a doorway to the first floor at the south end of the east elevation.
Internally the ground floor is four bays wide, that to the north side being the wheelpit, which is divided from the rest of the ground floor by a masonry wall (the pit wall). The plan and layout is unusual for a rural Devon watermill, with the waterwheel position being within the building. The wheelpit is about 1.3m wide and runs the length of the north wall, with an opening through the wall indicating the position of the waterwheel shaft. There are remains of a timber wheelshaft and at first floor level the remains of an inclined timber launder and hatch with control lever. The wheel was probably overshot and there may once have been two wheels in line in the wheelpit, formerly a common arrangement in Devon, although no clear evidence of this was noted. At ground floor level is a pair of bridge posts with a bridge tree spanning between them. The bridge tree retains a bearing box for the foot of the millstone spindle, and was tentered [raised/lowered] by a threaded rod with a captive spanner on its inner end. The position of the sack traps is visible in the first floor, towards the centre of the building.
There are two displaced millstones by the first floor door, a 1.14m diameter Peak runner stone with clockwise dressing, and a sandstone conglomerate stone of slightly larger diameter, possibly a bedstone.
Notes from a site visit made on 8th September 2002.

Bodman, M., 2016, Water Mills and other Water-powered Sites in Devon. Revised edition, 55 (Report - non-specific). SDV359634.

A sale notice circa October 2002 states that the mill is 'reputed to be the oldest mill in Devon'. The site is described as an 'ancient two-storey thatched water mill, an unusual three-storey house and a two-storey linhay. Founded in the 13th century, the current mill structure is believed to date mainly from the early 1700s when it was converted from a fulling mill for the local sheep industry and is understood to have stopped working in 1954. The house is said to date from the early 1700s and…has [an] old bakery'.

Ordnance Survey, 2019, MasterMap 2019 (Cartographic). SDV362729.

Square building shown.

Historic England, 2019, National Heritage List for England, 1262979 (National Heritage List for England). SDV362730.

Stockleigh Mill. Watermill, last used for fulling. First recorded 1293; present structure partly late medieval; remodelled C18. Stone rubble and cob walls with steep hipped, almost pyramidal, wheat-reed thatched roof. Square, 1-room plan with wheel position partly enclosed to north side, probably breast shot. Built into bank to east. 2 storeys. East front, i.e. first floor only at road level, has doorway, left with ledged door and old oak unglazed window, right, with closely spaced mullions. Similar window to south wall, ground floor and larger opening over. West front has leat exit, left with old unglazed oak window over within walling of timber framing with wattle and daub. Timber lacing continues from 1st floor sill level to almost half building length. Window to right of leat exit within rubble walling rebuilt C18 or C19. Wide doorway to ground floor right with pair of old ledged doors. Oak lintels. Old oak rafter ends project from cob under eaves. Interior has old wheel shaft in situ and timberwork for holding millstones. Otherwise machinery removed. Heavy chamfered oak beams support old flooring. Some older reused timber. Oak roof is probably C18 but is smoke-blackened possibly from forge. C15/C16 oak jointed cruck, ie part of cruck post and truss blade, survives from earlier roof in west wall towards north end. In spite of the machinery having been removed this is a very unspoilt small watermill. First recorded 1293.
Date first listed: 4th November 1985

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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