Building record 6233/1/1 - Mill building, Boughton Watermill

The mill is of three storeys, of coursed rubblestone construction with quoins and a concrete tiled gable roof. The mill race runs north-south beneath the east end of the mill.

{1} Post Medieval corn grinding mill was built as part of a large house. Machinery floors present. Now converted to a garage. Watercourses can still be seen although the water wheels have gone.

{4} A large stone-built mill of three storeys, it changed from corn grinding to paper making before 1717, but by 1835 it was working again as a corn mill with three pairs of stones. The waterwheel and machinery were taken out in the 1950s and the mill is now part of a riding school

{5}
History:
13th C Early in the century a mill at Boughton was granted to the Hospital of the Holy Trinity at Kingsthorpe
1398 Mill leased by the hospital to Robert Doncreamour and William Machins as a fulling-mill althouh described as "dilapidated and ruinous".
1509 By this date the mill here was operating as a corn mill
1717 When property changed hands it was as a paper-mill
1814 The papermaking equipment was sold and the mill again reverted to corn grinding. Insurance returns show it had three pairs of stones and a dressing machine
1855 By this time a steam engine house had been built, adjoining the mill, and milling continued using both water and steam power
1894 Last reference to this mill in trade directories
1945 Buildings still contained the waterwheel and most of the milling machinery
1964 By this itme, the ground floor had been converted to a garage for the adjoining house. The waterwheel also had been removed by this time
1993 No evidence of milling machinery on any floor when the premiseswere being used as a riding school. This use continues at present.

1779 Eyre's map marks it as Paper Mill as does the 1792 map of the proposed Union Canal from leicester to Northampton, and the 1813 survey plan for OS. Bryant's 1827 map marks it Boughton Mill.

The mill is 3 storeys high of stone with slated gable roof. It is adjoined on the east end by the mill-house. Both are large. A sales notice of 1844 for the contents of the house shows the owners were of some substance, and possible social standing. The mill is unusually spacious for a three pairs of stone mill and its size is probably due to being built for paper-making. The present use of the building as a riding school does not require great alterations and as long as this use continues the building is likely to survive in its present condition. The mill has some significance due to the paper-making activities there but because all evidence of these has gone now, the mill has only minor significance in the locality. Local significance. A more detailed inspection of the interior and sub-structure might provide further information on the various activities, particularly paper-making, carried on at different times in this mill.

{7} A brick lean-to structure, possibly a boiler house for when steam power was added to the mill in the 19th century was formerly attached to the north elevation of the mill. This area is now only visible as a brick stance in this area. It is adjoined on the east by the mill house which is of the same height, depth and roof-line. Internally the mill is divided into a storeroom / former garage entered by the sliding timber garage door on the front elevation and the former wheelhouse which no longer contains the wheel or any machinery. The former garage (plate 15) is whitewashed brick internally with a central brick pillar and concrete floor. The wheelhouse (plate 16) is accessed via a narrow hatch to the north east. The eastern half of the wheel pit has been bricked up, probably when the steam engine house was added in the mid-19th century. Overhead a transverse beam with cut-outs or wear from the former machinery meets a north-south timber joist propped by a modern I-beam. On the north upstream side two parallel timber beams straddle the mill race (plate 17), iron brackets on the northernmost beam suggesting that it once carried a sluice gate to control water flow onto the wheel.

Though the mill race and wheel house are still extant and the building is still externally legible as a former mill, internally Boughton Mill retains scant trace of its original purpose save for the incomplete penstock / sluice in the wheel house and similarly incomplete vertical shaft bearing at ceiling height on the first (stone) floor. The association of Robert Allen’s 18th century paper mill with a well-documented Daventry bookseller and stationers may well have been its most successful period.

<1> Starmer G.H., 1965, CBA Record Cards: Industrial Archaeology in Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Recording Form (Not SMR)). SNN1611.

<1> STARMER G., 2002?, Northamptonshire Watermills Survey 2001 - 2002 (A-H), p.10 (unchecked) (Report). SNN105520.

<2> Starmer G.H., 1973, National Register of Industrial Monuments, (part checked) (Catalogue). SNN571.

<3> Starmer G.H., 1982, National Register of Industrial Monuments, (part checked) (Catalogue). SNN563.

<4> Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeology Group, 2001, A Guide To The Industrial Heritage Of Northamptonshire, p.13 (checked) (Gazetteer). SNN104759.

<5> STARMER G., 2002?, Northamptonshire Watermills Survey 2001 - 2002 (A-H), p.10 (unchecked) (Report). SNN105520.

<6> Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeology Group, 2011, A Guide To The Industrial Heritage of Northamptonshire (2nd Edition), p.15 (checked) (Gazetteer). SNN107622.

<7> Crank, N., 2017, Archaeological building recording: Boughton Mill Farm, Welford Road, Chapel Brampton (Boughton Parish), Northamptonshire, NN6 8AB (Report). SNN110957.

Record last edited

Oct 1 2020 3:28PM