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Summary

Manor Mill was totally destroyed by fire in c1864 and rebuilt with an overshot wheel driving two pairs of stones. It is now owned by the National Trust and was restored to working order in the 1990s.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SY18NE/24

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• WATERMILL (Early Medieval to XXI - 1066 AD to 2009 AD (Between))

Full description

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

'Manor Mill (Corn)' marked on 1880s-1890s 25 inch Ordnance Survey map.

Devon County Council, 1974, Survey of Watermills in Devon: Gazetteer (Report - Survey). SDV83967.

Phillips, M. C. + Wilson, R. E., 1974 - 1977, Water Mills in East Devon, 53-54 (Article in Serial). SDV42946.

Substantial stone and slate-roofed mill hull, mill house and farm buildings side by side. 300m leat fed by stream running south east supplied water to power overshot wheel. The machinery is in evidence but in poor state of repair. The earliest certain reference to this mill was in 1782, although a miller in Branscombe was referred to in 1250. The mill is now owned by the National Trust but it has yet to be restored.

Allden, A., 1979, Survey of National Trust Property in East and Southeast Devon (Report - Survey). SDV127919.

1806 Ordnance Survey drawing. Tithe Map 1840. Building extant - associated field names.

National Trust, 1984, Branscombe and Salcombe Regis, 9 (Report - Survey). SDV325224.

Bodman, M., 1998, Water-Powered Sites in Devon, 26 (Report - non-specific). SDV305931.

Other details: No 11.

Bodman, M., 2003, Watermills and Other Water-Powered Sites in Devon, 204 (Report - Interim). SDV325576.

Exeter Archaeology, 2003-2004, East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Archaeological Survey, 164 (Archive - Survey). SDV351568.

Manor Mill. Substantial stone and slate roofed mill hull. Mill house and farm buildings side by side. 300 metre leat fed by stream running south-east powered overshot wheel. Machinery present but poor state of repair (in 1973). Earliest reference to this mill was 1782, although a miller in Branscombe was referred to in 1250. Marked as corn mill on OS map of 1890. Field immediately to south-west called Millers Hill on Tithe Map/Tithe Apportionment (Tithe Apportionment No. 689). Leat visible on 1946 aerial photo in final two fields as it approached the mill.

Watts, S., 2004, Tour Notes compiled for the Mills Section, SPAB, Weekend Mill Tour, Devon, 2-5 September 2004, 3 (Un-published). SDV323972.

Manor Mill Farm was known historically as Middlecombe. 18th and 19th century references to 'mills' suggests that the mill once had two waterwheels. Mill totally destroyed by fire in c1864 and rebuilt with a single waterwheel driving two pairs of stones through spur gearing. The mill worked until just prior to the Second World War. The farm was taken over by the National Trust in 1965 and the waterwheel was subsequently rebuilt. The internal machinery was resotred to working order in the 1990s. The waterwheel carries the name RH & J FOLLETT. COLYTON and the date 1914.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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