Little Parndon Watermill (EHER 31724)

Mid to late 19th century mill, for both water and steam power. Of whitewashed brick with slated roof, and 2 jettied lucams for sack-hoisting. Four storeys high, with ranges of 6 cast-iron windows. Inside: the turbine for water power, of iron, survives. No original machinery other than the turbine survives.

Little Parndon turbine / no gear / business premises. <1> June 1981. Grade II listed. Mid to late 19th century mill, for both water and steam power. Of whitewashed brick with slated roof, and two jettied lucams for sack-hoisting. Four storeys high, with ranges of 6 cast-iron windows. Inside: the turbine for water power, of iron, survives. No original machinery other than the turbine survives. <2> See photos. <3> 2008. Survey of Water and Steam Mills in Essex. A mill on the site of Parndon mill is mentioned in Domesday along with two hives and a goat. The present mill was built around 1897, following the destruction of its predecessor by fire. However, this date is at odds with a date of 1882 inscribed into a keystone of a ground floor arch. A Francis horizontal 20 horsepower turbine was installed in 1904 and the mill continued to mill corn up until 1960 when the miller Neville Smith, passed away. Thereafter it was taken on by Bill Twynham who milled animal feed and ran a coal merchants business from the site. It fell into dereliction until 1968 when its present owner set up a pottery business in the mill and set about its sympathetic restoration. Parndon mill is now partly used as office accommodation, as studios and workshops for local artists and craftsmen and as a Gallery. A large 10 bay 4 storey brick built watermill with two lucams, one in each end bay (north and south). The entire mill is built using ‘Cambridge’ white bricks laid for strength in English Bond. The gable ended roof is divided off centre by a fire wall and is presently covered with corrugated asbestos replacing the original slates. The fire wall divides the building into two distinct halves separating the milling floors of the southern six bays from the granary/screening areas of the northern 4 bays. This separation explains the unusual provision of two lucams, one serving each half of the mill. Both lucams are situated at third floor level and are large timber-framed and boarded structures supported by plain diagonal braces on brick corbels. Below the lucams are tiers of taking in doors, two below the southern lucam at first and second floors and three serving each floor in the northern section. Central to the facade at first floor is a iron gantry which in addition to the hoists in the two lucams was used when loading and unloading carts and lorries. The present gantry and the decorative cantilevered brackets on which it is supported are replacements but adopt the same design as the originals. The window distribution on the whole is asymmetrical but if associated by division is more regular; the southern section comprising a block of 4 and 3 window ranges, and the northern bays, single windows flanking the central tier of taking-in doors. The window apertures have segmental heads with arches of three on edge courses and either stone or replacement sills. The windows are multi-paned, metal framed fixed glazing with a central pivoting ventilating hopper. The vast majority of the original windows remain and those which have been replaced are good quality replicas produced by a blacksmith on site. Plain tie bar bosses are apparent at each floor level across the main elevation while smaller bosses are present at eaves level. The horizontal turbine remains within the wheel pit below the southern bays of the mill. Although the encasing structure no longer survives the main engineering, i.e. the twin impellors are in situ. All that remains of the vertical drive is the main upright drive shaft supported by the first floor joist and the crown wheel from which the stones were driven. The sluice gate mechanism within the chamber remains intact. Although the mill has been extensively converted for use as offices/studios/gallery space and retains no technological apparatus (apart from that mentioned) its conversion was carried reasonably sympathetically, to the extent that the original straight flights, close boarded floors and external doors survive. Other original structural features include geometric cast-iron columns and the machine sawn Baltic softwood binding joists. A contemporary late 19th century white brick built engine house with an original chimney stack lies adjacent to the NE angle of the mill. Even though the steam engine has long since been removed, survival of the engine house and particularly the stack is most uncommon. Immediately south is a Grade II listed three storey mid 18th century mill house built with a plain tiled gabled ended roof and plastered elevations and a range of converted outbuildings including a former stable block. The mill and mill house are listed for their group value. In its appearance Parndon Mill is more comparable to the style of a cotton mill than that of a traditional Essex watermill. It is a large, austere mill typical of industrialised production buildings of the later 19th century, incorporating contemporary design features such as fire break walls, fire doors and an original engine house and boiler house stack. It is a fine example of an integrated industrial steam and watermill that has few close parallels in Essex. It lacks unsympathetic accretions and still makes an important contribution to the historic/architectural character of the area and particularly the setting along the Stort Navigation. <4>