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Summary

Watermill retaining some 17th century fabric. It was restored in the 1980s.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1104472: DOCTON MILL

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS22SW/14
• Old Listed Building Ref (II)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• WATERMILL (Built, XVI - 1501 AD to 1600 AD (Between))

Full description

Pearse Chope, R., 1909, Corn and Fulling Mills - Notes of the Past (Article in Serial). SDV337544.

Major, K. + Watts, M., 1970s ?, Docton Mill, Hartland, Devon (Un-published). SDV358826.

Docton Mill, Hartland. Stands with short gable facing hillside and greater length stretching away, so that door by the leat is higher than main door. Waterwheel is on long side of mill, facing east. Single-storey. New slate roof. Door and window at hillside end, window over waterwheel, and window at short end of building. Low-level window on west and door into miller's house. Half timbering around door. Millers house abuts centre of mill. Two-storey west end and middle portion. Front door on west. French window on north. Two gables, both with chimneys. Centre portion of house has two rooms: one up, one down. Modern staircase. Exposed truss indicates early date. Kitchen and bathroom lean-to added. All buildings are of stone. Waterwheel is overshot wheel. Cast iron rims, oak spokes, face-board buckets. Timber launder removed. Wheel drove two pairs of millstones. Attic floor removed. Small corn mill.

Department of Environment, 1977, Hartland (Provisional List) (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV337543.

Former mill and mill-house. Some C17 fabric, mill probably enlarged in C19, the buildings were restored and the mill partly converted in 1980. Stone rubble walls, whitewashed to the house. Gable-ended natural slate roof. Rubble axial stack and smaller probably rebuilt one at left gable-end of house.
Plan: the house and mill are at right angles; the house to the west consists of 2 heated rooms but the gable-end stack to the left-hand room may be an insertion and the whole room could be an addition. The mill forms a cross-wing at the right-hand end of the house. Its top floor has been converted to accommodation but it retains its wheel on its right-hand wall. C20 extensions built at rear of mill.
Exterior: 2 storeys, mill 3 storeys L-shaped front with mill projecting at right- hand end. The house has an asymmetrical 2-window front of late C20 2-light casements apart from one of 4 lights on the ground floor to the right. The left- hand part of the house is taller. C20 gabled stone porch to left of centre with stable-type door. The mill has a door on its inner face with a C20 2-light casement above. On its front end wall the ground rises to a doorway on the top floor with glazed double doors. The right-hand wall of the mill retains the late C19 overshot iron wheel with a wooden launder leading to it. To the right on the top floor a balcony has been created during the recent restoration with glazed doors behind which have a small gable over. Large lean-to built against the rear wall of the mill - probably C19 but extended in the C20 with a small gabled C20 wing adjoining it.
Interior: C17 axial fireplace has chamfered and step-stopped wooden lintel. Wany roughly chamfered ceiling beam. Most of the mill machinery was removed earlier in the C20 and what survives was put in the late 1930's and comes from Newton St Petrock mill.
A Rate made in 1682 mentions Docton Mill at a value of o12. (sic)

Hartland Quay Museum, 1981, Untitled Source (Leaflet). SDV8168.

Recently restored + extended. Still possesses waterwheel.

Bodman, M., 2003, Watermills and Other Water-Powered Sites in Devon, 147 (Report - Interim). SDV325576.

Documentary reference in 1743 for the conveyance of Milford Mills now known as Docton Mills. Directory entries for James Knight, miller in 1857 and John Williams, miller in 1878.
The mill closed in 1910. It was restored in the 1980s.

Collings, A. G. + Manning, P. T. + Valentin, J., 2007, The North Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Phase 1. Archaeological Survey. Summary Report, No. 723 (Report - Assessment). SDV339712.

Ordnance Survey, 2015, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV357601.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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