Listed Building record MDR10198 - Mercaston Mill, Mercaston Lane, Mercaston

SK 28577 41955. A watermill was present on this site by 1825 as it is shown on Greenwood's map of that date. It is named as 'Mercaston Mill' on the first edition OS map of 1836, having replaced an earlier mill site shown on the same map as 'Old Mercaston Mill' [SMR 30105]. The Grade II listed mill building is presently used as part of a trout farm, with many fish breeding pans on the ground floor. The brick building, with stone framed windows and a tiled roof, probably dates back to about 1800. It is about 36ft long and 21ft wide and still has in place the stone floor, with a granary above, although the machinery, other than a vestige of the sack hoist, has all long since been removed from the building. At the rear of the mill a leat, 8ft wide, still feeds water (used for the fish) into the mill building. Also at the rear of the building, down a flight of stone steps, a complete breastshot waterwheel is still in place [1999], located largely below the ground level and measuring approximately 22ft diameter by 5ft wide. The wheel has an iron shaft, huge iron hubs, wooden arms and floats, but iron shrouds. The pentrough is still in place. The tail water cleared the building through a brick-lined tunnel before rejoining the stream. The mill worked as a corn mill and fish farm until about 1920 when corn milling ceased but the wheel was still used to power grinders used to reduce meat into a fish meal. Only one reference to a miller has been found, Joseph Holbrook, in 1876. (1)