Building record 5701/1/1 - Whitfield Mill

By 1928, the mill is decribed as 'used occasionally'. Much of the mill building has been converted to a dwelling, apart from an extension probably built to accommodate a steam engine in the late 19th century.

{1} History:
c.1240 Reference to Mulnecroft and Mulnehyl at Whitfield in the deeds of Magdalen College, Oxford
1851-90 Berry family were millers here
1885 Listed as using steam as well as water power
1906 Executors of John Pollard were last mention of Whitfield Mill in trade directories
1928 Described as 'used ocasionally', presumably for gristing.

Documentary sources: Eyre's 1779 map; 1814 survey plan for OS; Bryant's 1827 map; and the 1833 1 inch OS map all mark it as Whitfield Mill.

The leat, banked up as ot approaches the mill from the south-east, remains up to the mill where it is blanked off outside. The former by-pass sluice now takes the full flow of the stream past the mill.

The mill at the north east end has been incorporated into the dwelling so as to be virtually unrecognisable. All milling machinery, including wheel, has been removed. On the north east side of the house a one and a half storey extension with a lean-to roof probably was built to accommodate the steam engine of c.1885.
The original building seems to have had a later addition on the south east side. The north west side is of four bays. Except for the third bay from the north east, each bay has double casement windows at the first and second storey with a smaller double casement window in a dormer above. The third bay is similar except there is a door instead of the window on the ground floor. The gable roof and the dormers are red tiled, and there are square red brick chimney stacks at each end and approx in the middle of the roof. The walls appear to be white painted rendered brick.
The south east side has a single dormer in the main roof. The main roof on this side is continued at a slightly lower pitch over a width equal about that of the original building. The height of the eaves on this side is about three quarters the height of those on the north west side. In this extended roof are three dormers, each with double casement windows, corresponding to the first, second and fourth bays on the other side. There are two doors and uneven fenestration on the gorund floor, and just one window between the lintel level of the ground floor openings and the eaves. None of the windows in the extension are to the same standard.

<1> STARMER G., 2002?, Northamptonshire Watermills Survey 2001 - 2002 (H-Z), p.133 (checked) (Report). SNN105521.

Record last edited

Oct 22 2020 10:04AM