Listed Building record MDR3522 - Victoria Mill, Bakewell

An 18th to 19th century water powered corn mill. A three storeyed gritstone building with iron framed windows. The mill was originally powered by a 16ft diameter cast iron wheel that was 13½ ft wide, breast shot, with rim gearing. A leat fed the mill from the River Wye. It is possibly on the site of the Domesday mill. (1) A small building is shown on the site in 1799. (4) The mill is described as the 'new corn mill' in the Enclosure Award of 1810 and may have been rebuilt in 1800. (5) (6) In 1847, the mill premises included a kiln house, stable, counting house, wheelhouse and open shed. (7) A Sale Catalogue of 1920 gives details of room use and millstones, and lists the buidings in theyard as stables, wagon shed, store and fodder room, open shed and gighouse. (8) A mill is recorded in Domesday Book. The actual location of this mill is not known; however, since good mill sites, ie where there is adequate water supply and flow, were often used again and again, it is quite possible that the same site was still being used in the 19th century. The present mill building was described as 'new' in the 1810 Enclosure Award. It continued to grind corn and animal feed until after the end of the Second World War, although the actual date of closure has not been established. The large gritstone building had iron-framed windows and a lucam for hoisting sacks into upper floors of the mill. The breast shot iron waterwheel, dating from about 1850, was 16ft in diameter and 13ft 6ins wide and had an iron axle. There is no machinery remaining in the building and no records have been found regarding the number of pairs of stones or how they were driven. The wheel was removed from its close-fitting stone wheel pit in December 1971 with a view to restoration. Since that time, however, it has lain in the mill yard and at the time of writing is just a large pile of rust. The building is till complete and is used as a laboratory. (9) Three storey 18th century gritstone corn mill with cast iron windows and disintegrated water wheel in situ on mill leet. The south end has been modernised and is in use as a picture gallery. (10)