Listed Building record MDR7250 - Former mill, Pool Road, Melbourne

Flour Mill named on the OS maps of 1887 and 1924. (1-2) The building is depicted but not named on the OS map of 1970. (3) The mill sits beside The Pool, which may have served as a mill pond since a water channel runs for c. 30m westwards from the mill into the formal gardens of Melbourne Hall. (4) The mill, known as 'Pool Mill' was worked by four generations of the same family from 1805 until 1968. In 1923 the mill was powered by two water wheels driven by water flowing out of Melbourne Pool into the Hall Gardens. By the 1950s, following a fall in the demand for corn grinding, the mill was specialising in the manufacture of pig and poultry foods. Following its closure as a working mill, its machinery was removed. (5) There are many records of a watermill at Melbourne, all of which presumably refer to this site or nearby. A mill worth three shillings is recorded at Melbourne in Domesday Book. In 1653 Elizabeth Coke assigned 'four watermills, with a great pond above the mills and the other pond below the forge pond'. A mill appears on Burdett's map adjacent to the pool and is also marked in this position on Greenwood's map of 1825. Operating a watermill here was apparently not always a success and documents in Melbourne Hall muniments include letters sent by John Fisher, agent to Thomas Coke, in 1703 regarding the parlous state of the mill, including the following: '6th March 1703 - I went and viewed the mill, a great part of it is out of repaire though the late Ld. Huntingdon hath new built one part of it.. ..I dare not mention all that will require repair. It is supposed it will require three score pounds thereabouts to be laid out before another miller will enter'. The last mill to work in the village still sits below the dam wall of Melbourne Pool. By the doorway a stone block carries the inscription 'W - 1769'. The sluices to the waterwheels are still in place and the water passes under the road which runs by the pool. The mill originally had two waterwheels, probably overshot, but only one wheel pit is still visible. The size of this suggests that the wheel was large, about 15ft in diameter by 5ft wide. These two waterwheels were replaced in 1929 by a turbine, but no clear records have been found on this or the other machinery in the mill. The original millstones, however, are known to have been removed and modern roller milling equipment introduced, driven by electricity. Adjacent to the dam wall, a small brick-built drying kiln hearth complete with iron door is still standing, but little else remains. In 1968 the last miller Mr Rowland Adcock retired after more than 30 years. The building was converted into a house in the early 1970s. It is currently [in 1998] being refurbished. (6) A water mill is recorded at Melbourne in 1086 and may have been on the same site as the later mill. The existing mill building is of c. 1632 but was altered and refitted in 1832. The mill ceased to function as such in 1968 and is now a private house. (7) The Old Mill, Melbourne is a former watermill and outbuilding, converted into a house c. 1975. It was built in the early 17th century, with 18th century additions and 19th century alterations. It is built from rubble stone some red brick and with raised quoins, the west elevation is rendered. The roofs are plain tile with moulded stone copings to the gables and parapets, plus an external 20th century stone chimney stack to the east elevation. It is of a single bay, with a 20th century extension at right angles, joining the original mill to a later two bay outbuilding. It is a single storey building, plus attics, with only the attics visible to the western street elevation because of a dramatic fall in the level of the land. The west elevation has a central gable with parapets to the sides and steps up to a central opening with 20th century double glazed doors. The east elevation has a central 17th century chamfered door with a low inserted 20th century opening to the south, over which is a 2-light recessed and chamfered mullion window with dripmould. Attached to north side is the 20th century weatherboarded extension, with an 18th century outbuilding to the east, all the openings in both are 20th century. The south elevation has a large glazed opening to the base which formerly housed an overshot wheel. There is a blocked hole in the adjacent wall where the water was originally fed through from the pool. The interior has large chamfered timbers. (8)