2732

 

II*  

Designated  

06/09/1974  

10/10/2000  

Mathern Mill and attached house  

 

Monmouthshire  

Mathern  

Chepstow  

Mathern  

351540  

191637  

 

About 1000m north of the Church of St Tewdric on the lane to Caerwent.  

Industrial  

 

Former corn mill, in use until circa 1968, and which is said to retain much of its machinery including the water wheel. It is on the site of a medieval mill and is in fact the lowest mill on the Mounton Brook. The present mill may be C18 in origin but what shows on the exterior is difficult to date. The front red brick range appears to be c1840, and if this is an addition to an existing mill as seems likely, then the main mill behind could be late C18 or early C19. The whole mill as now appears on the 1839 tithe map. It appears to have had no alteration after the mid C19 until closure and only very minor changes since.  

The mill consists of two ranges, with one set in front of the other and with the millhouse at the left hand end of the rear range. The narrower front range is said to be the engine house and is of three storeys, faced with red brick and with a Welsh slate gabled roof. The elevation to the road is of two window bays; flat arched windows with small panes on the second floor and with their heads at eaves level. On the first floor there is a segmental headed window with small panes to the left hand and a segmental headed plank door to the right hand. There are two boarded segmental headed openings on the ground floor. There is a weather boarded outskirt with corrugated iron roof against the eastern gable end. This hides the base of the gable wall and the upper half is blind. The entrance to the engine house is achieved through a doorway in the western gable wall, plank door with an elliptical head, the gable wall is otherwise blind. The rear range comprises the mill on the right behind the engine house and the mill house on the left. Three storeys and loft; stone walls with external rendered cladding; Welsh slate gabled roof with red brick chimneys, the ridge chimney is old, the one on the front wall a new rebuilding. The east gable is not rendered and can be seen to be white limestone. There is a square opening in the gable and others below masked by heavy ivy. The south elevation, to the right of the house, has a door and a small 2-light window and a taking-in door in the floor above. The western part of this range comprises the mill house with a southern elevation of two window bays; small windows on the second floor with heads at eaves level; sash windows without glazing bars and with slightly cambered heads on the first floor; on the ground floor, a sash window without glazing bars to left hand and a doorway to right hand. These windows have been replaced with hardwood replicas since listing. There is an additional door and window in the gable end. The rear elevation was not seen at the time of resurvey.  

The interior was not available for inspection at the time of resurvey. The mill is said to contain the main drive gears on the ground floor, the crown wheel and four pairs of French stones on the first floor, two pairs of which are in situ together with wooden horses and hoppers; the hoist also remains. It is not known what the engine house may contain, nor is it known why it is called an engine house as there is no chimney or a boiler house in evidence.  

Included at II* as a large and fine early C19 watermill on an historic site, which is believed to retain much of its machinery last in use in c1968.