Hallingbury Mill (EHER 3651)

18th century or earlier water mill. It was rebuilt in 1874 and is now a restaurant.

Water mill, silk mill for throwing and twisting silk. Marked on Chapman and Andre map as a silk mill, with water mill symbol. Now used as a corn mill. <1> <2> Mill marked here on OS 1:25000 map. <3> "A fully restored water mill built 1874 with the rebuilt granary standing on the site of the mill demolished in 1885". Ground floor is brick built; stone floor, bin floor and loft are timber-framed and clad with vertical weatherboarding, except right return wall which is hung with tiles. Mill and rebuilt granary have pantile roofs. All main timber structure is original. Much of the original machinery has been retained, including the water wheel. Only one pair of the four original pairs of stone wheels remains complete. Two old machines mounted for demonstration in the building - a warehouse separator and a brush machine. Site Assessment = "Said to be the only known surviving vertical weatherboarded building of its kind in the south-east". The mill can produce small amounts of wholemeal flour since it was restored. <4> This is the site of a water powered corn mill which is recorded in 1720 as being used for silk throwing and twisting. It has been established that it was probably using a copy of the machinery patented two years earlier by Sir Thomas Lombe. It was not used for long for this purpose and reverted to being a corn mill. The mill was rebuilt in 1874 and is now in use as a restaurant. The ground floor is brick built with arched window and door openings, while the stone floor, bin floor and loft are timber framed and clad with vertical weatherboarding, except for the east elevation which is hung with grey slate tiles. There are lucams in the north and south facing roofs with ornamental iron brackets. The roof is of pantiles. Much of the original corn milling machinery including the water wheel (7ft breadth, 16ft diameter, with 48 floats of low breast type), pit wheel, trough, spier wheel. Crown wheel and stone nuts have been retained as part of the restaurant conversion. There is an adjacent granary of about 1885. Milling on this site using waterpower has a history of about 300 years, although the current structures are mainly only about 125 years old. However, it is in good condition and is a well-preserved example of an Essex water powered corn mill. The machinery may be worth closer inspection and recording. More significant as a long-used site of water powered corn milling with only a brief association with silk throwing. The only known example of a vertical weatherboarded building of its kind in the south-east of England. Currently in use as a restaurant, recently refurbished. A detailed record should be made at the earliest opportunity, including elevations, floor plans, details of extant machinery, photographs and textual analysis. <4>. Little Hallingbury Mill converted to restaurant. <5> Parish records dating from 1641 refer to 'Tednam mill', a grist mill on the site of the present mill, leased to Robert Merry, Miller. In 1693 Tednam Mill was demolished and replaced by a silk mill (about 1720) designed for the winding of raw silks, but by 1778 it was converted to a corn mill. The corn mill worked up until the later 19th century when it was demolished and replaced by the present building in 1874. The new mill continued to mill using traditional methods although the stones were augmented by roller plant manufactured by Turners of Ipswich. For a short period a small steam plant was used to supplement the wheel but during the 1940s a 30 HP Petter semi-diesel engine was introduced by the last miller Sam Ellis. The mill continued producing flour up until 1952, but as business faltered, to the extent that only 8-10 sacks were milled a day, it closed and remained so for the next 15 years. Following its closure and between 1952 and 1967 most of the modern machinery including spouts, diesel engine, elevators and roller mills were progressively scrapped. In the late 1960s Hallingbury Mill was purchased by John Wilkinson who by 1968 completed an extensive restoration of the redundant mill buildings, and particularly the conservation of the milling apparatus. Following his death permission was granted in 1999, for its reuse as guest house accommodation and it remains so to the present day. Much of the milling technology conserved by Wilkinson was retained and it is reported that ‘many original features of the mill are kept in full working order’. Four bay 3½ storey part brick and timber framed weatherboarded mill with a two-storey weatherboarded store and single storey granary attached to the west. Gabled lucams on decorative iron brackets project from the northern and southern roof pitches of the gable ended roof. The pan tile roof noted in the list description has been replaced with modern cement tiles. The ground floor storey is built in yellow stock brick in English bond and incorporates a stone date plaque with the build date of 1874. The ground floor windows all have brick arched heads and appear to be the same or replicas of those mentioned in the listing. Taking-in doors (now blocked) are located on the first and second floor of the easternmost bay. The mill has vertical boarding covering the western gable end and slate hanging cladding the eastern gable end. Modern lean-to extensions that post-date the closure of the mill have been added to the rear at the eastern end along with a fire escape. At the western end the single storey granary (about 1885) has a pan tile gabled roof and sits on brick-built stalls (piers). It has modern windows and has been recently extended by a single bay to the west (riverside). The sluice gate and the low shot iron waterwheel remain in situ. The 25 HP waterwheel has 48 floats, is 7ft wide, 16ft in diameter and rotates counterclockwise on an octagonal section cast-iron shaft. The pit wheel (mortise type) is 14ft in diameter with 160 hornbeam cogs. This meshes with a cast-iron wallower which in turn drives a cast-iron great spur wheel. The stone nuts have wooden cogs, and are raised by tentering gears and jacks, all mounted within a heavy frame or hursting. This part of the stone drive remains at ground floor and within what is now the bar area of the hotel. The extent to which other technological apparatus survives within the upper floors of the mill was not determined, however a report in the Essex Journal gives an idea as to the degree of survival in 1974. It States ‘Four pairs of stones were originally installed but only one pair remain complete. The working stones are beneath a tun which still retains a full set of furniture. There are no screens left and there are two old types of machines, one is a warehouse separator and the other a brush machine. The bin floor originally held about 90 tons of grain (usually a mix of English and Canadian) but the bins were removed due to rot. The grain hoist mechanism is on this floor as is the hoist gear in the lucomb’. All the timber structure is original and comprises 12in x 9in x 22ft floor beams tied into the storey posts using smith made iron ties and dogs. A dry dock with a boat lifting crane has been built into the mill leat immediately north of the mill while further to the north is an overflow sluice once used to regulate water to the mill race. Present Use: Hotel/Restaurant Condition: Good <6> See: <7> See also: <8>