Building record 6265/1/1 - Main Mill Building, Great Billing mill

Built in the early 19th century. The mill ceased work in 1940 becoming derelict until 1968, when it was restored as a museum. Now in use as a restaurant.

{1} Mill renovated and at time of recording used as restaurant.

{2} Machinery intact at time of Planning Application.

{3} Current mill building of early C19th date, it remained working until 1940s. Now used as a museum at Billing Aquadrome with an exhibition of millers' tools, old machinery and millstones. A fine example of a water-driven mill in full working order.

{4} The present three storey corn mill with slate roof is joined at its south end by the two storey brick former mill cottage. The buildings date from the early 19th century, were adapted for a Museum of Milling in 1968 and in the mid-1990s converted into a restaurant and bar, retaining the iron Poncelet-type undershot waterwheel and some of the machinery but now all behind glass.

{5} The mill is of three storeys, of stone with a gabled slated roof. Although the arrangement of fenestration has been only slightly altered, the type of windows and size of doors are significantly different from those originally in the mill. The canopy just below the eaves, extending over the first floor door, is an addition at the time the mill was converted to a Museum of Milling. The balcony with iron railings in front of the same door dates from the conversion to bar/restaurant.
The buildings adjoining the south end of the mill were the mill cottages, also of stone. The roofs originally were of slates but these have been replaced by modern pantiles. The original different roof lines have been retained. Adjoining the north end of the mill is the water wheel house and barn. These each had separate pantiled roofs but renovation from the derelict state has given them a continuous roof with modern pantiles. The adjoining buildings on the west and north side are all of the 1990s.
Interior inspection: Inside the wheel house the Poncelet-type iron waterwheel by Groome of Towcester still turns when the sluice gate is raised to allow water on to it, although it is no longer connected to the machinery. Alongside the wheel-race is the by-pass channel with lifting eel trap.
Tables and chairs for the bar occupy some of the space on both floors of the mill. The mill machinery is behind protective glass panels. Some of these may be unlocked to gain closer access to surviving machinery. This is in surprisingly good condition and includes the pit wheel, the wallower on the vertical shaft,, the great spur wheel, stone nuts, tentering gear, one set of stones with its stone furniture and the other with runner stone lifted away to show the mace and rynd. The sack hoist also is in situ. The machinery here, typical of most of the smaller Northamptonshire mills, is still virtually intact, in good condition and easy to see. This is the only mill in the county where all three of these conditions hold and the mill is thus of county significance.

<1> Starmer G.H., 1982, National Register of Industrial Monuments, (part checked) (Catalogue). SNN563.

<2> STARMER G.H., 1994, Oral Report to SMR, (checked) (Oral Report). SNN50474.

<3> NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH COUNCIL, 1987, Watermills in Northampton: History & Survivals, p.3 (checked) (Booklet). SNN15540.

<4> Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeology Group, 2001, A Guide To The Industrial Heritage Of Northamptonshire, p.10 (checked) (Gazetteer). SNN104759.

<5> Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeology Group, 2011, A Guide To The Industrial Heritage of Northamptonshire (2nd Edition), p.12 (checked) (Gazetteer). SNN107622.

<6> STARMER G., 2002?, Northamptonshire Watermills Survey 2001 - 2002 (A-H), p.7 (checked) (Report). SNN105520.

Record last edited

Oct 1 2020 3:09PM