Listed Building record MDR3118 - Sluice Slinter Cottage, Via Gellia, Bonsall

Sluice Slinter Cottage, Via Gellia, Bonsall, built c1760. A small late 18th century lead smelting works probably for lead slag that was later a saw mill, with the remains of a 20th century waterwheel. (1-2) Late 19th century OS maps show the site as a 'Saw Mill' and 'Timber Yard'. (3-4) A two storey cottage with a disused undershot waterwheel in an attached wheelhouse. Believed to date from c1760 and may have produced bobbins for the Arkwright Mills. (5) The mill was originally constructed as a lead slag mill associated with a lead smelting enterprise higher up the valley. It was later converted to wood turning and produced bobbins and pulleys for the cotton mills. It is set in an area of great natural beauty dominated by Slinter Tor. The adjacent woodland has been designated an SSSI and an SAC. The structure still retains a small breast-shot wheel with wooden buckets. The cottage is in the course of renovation by the Arkwright Society. (6) The Arkwright Society has completed renovation work on Slinter Cottage in the Via Gellia, making a holiday cottage on the first floor, with an information centre on the ground floor. Built as a watermill in about 1800, Slinter Cottage stands at the northern end of the World Heritage Site, next to the Bonsall Brook. Initially used to process lead slag, the building was later converted to making bobbins and in its last industrial phase was a saw mill. It became part of the Arkwright estate during the 19th century and now belongs to the Arkwright Society. (7) Please note that there is an erroneous reference to surviving flues at this site by Authority (2). It was confirmed in 2016 that these flues are, in fact, situated at Meerbrook Cupola. The garden at Slinter Cottage down to the brook is composed almost wholly of run slag, of the type normal in a slag mill, which re-treats the slag of either cupolas or the earlier ore-hearth type smelters. There are definitely no visible or even suspected flues at this location. (1, 8) Having done much research on the mills served by Bonsall Brook, D Buxton believes that the mill was built as a slag mill by George Evans of Bonsall at some time after 1777, when he bought the rights on the brook, and probably after c1800, the date the RCHME gives for Dunsley Mill. It is listed in his Estate in 1809, the year after his death. It worked in conjunction with the cupola he had built earlier on what is now the Via Gellia Mill site. It appears as a slag mill on Sanderson's map of 1835. It was a wood turning mill according to the Bonsall Tithe map of 1846 and a directory of 1857 recorded is as a saw mill and lace card manufactory. It fell out of use in the early 20th century. The open upper floor was divided with wooden-framed partitions to make living accommodation during the Second World War. (9) From the National Heritage List for England: '1. VIA GELLIA 1390 CROMFORD Slinter Wood SK 2857 2/80 II 2. Circa 1760. A simple 2-storeyed cottage of stone rubble which was originally Richard Arkwright's sawmill having 5 C19 casement windows and later tiled roof. To left of south side a stone enclosure with sheet tin roof, containing small disused undershot wheel having open wooden spoons. Attractively situated in a wooded hollow below the road, dominated by Slynn Tor. Listing NGR: SK2866157155.' (10)