MDE11208 - Post-medieval corn mill at Croscombe Barton Farm (Building)

A disused corn mill at Crosscombe Barton Farm. A cast iron overshot waterwheel, 3.8m in diameter, was inserted in about 1850; it is no longer in use but remains in situ. The wheel was fed from a stream through a series of artificial ponds.

Croscombe farm mill, Caffyns Cross. The overshot waterwheel is constructed of cast iron with wooden buckets. It is 12ft 6ins in diameter by 4ft 6ins wide. It has iron arms and is placed under the cover of an archway. It is in working order, but there is no other machinery on the site. The building is constructed of stone and has a slate roof. It is in fair condition. [1] NGR SS 684 479: Water pours incessently through a pipe which fed the launder in the mill building. Most of the buckets have disappeared but the ironwork of the wheel remains. The stone buildings are in good condition, apart from some doors, which are rotting at the bottom. The farmhouse has been given a new slate roof in the last three years. There is a pond behind the mill, with a sluice gate. The leat is in good condition. The last owner widened the stream below the mill and farmhouse into a series of pools, hoping to provide fishing. In 1975 it was found that the water came froma large pond behind the farm, then via 12in. Cast iron pipes through a byre to an overshot wheel within the main barn. The wheel had 10in side plates, 36 oak buckets, an oak sole, six iron arms 3in x 1in, a 4 1/2in round shaft and a 12ft diameter outward facing rim gear. The pinions etc had been removed. The small shafting and bevel gears remained, led through another byre across the yard to the farmhouse where a butter churn was worked. The machinery was made by Garnish & Lemon of Barnstaple. [2] SS 6831 4790. The remains of a corn mill at Crosscombe Barton Farm. A cast iron waterwheel was installed at Crosscombe Barton in about 1850. The wheel, 3.81m diameter and 1.37m wide, is situated on the north side of an archway inside the stone farm buildings at SS 6831 4790 though it is no longer in use and some of its wooden buckets are broken. It had a line shaft from which the corn mill and milk separator were driven though none of this machinery survives. The overshot wheel was fed from a stream in a deep-sided combe but was given a head of water by two artificial ponds, one at SS 6828 4787 near the farm buildings and a larger one higher up the combe to the south at SS 6826 4768. The water has been conveyed underground for part of its course (from SS 6824 4782 to SS 6827 4787 and from SS 6829 4789 to the wheel) and a modern pond and reservoir has been constructed on the stream at SS 6825 4775. The wooden plug which fitted the supply pipe to this wheel was dredged from one of the ponds (probably the lower on near the farm) in 1973 and is now on display in the ?Exmoor Museum at Lynton. Note: The National Grid Reference given in the Devon SMR SS 684 479, is incorrect. [3,4] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [5] The buildings were assessed as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor’s Listed Buildings 2018-19, receiving a BAR score of 5A. [6]