7500

 

II*  

Designated  

19/10/1989  

17/12/1998  

Gileston Mill aka Talybont Mill  

 

Powys  

Talybont-on-Usk  

 

Talybont on Usk  

311404  

222677  

 

In the centre of Talybont Village, just N of the main street, adjacent to Afon Caerfanell, reached by a narrow lane with Talybont Farm adjacent NW.  

Industrial  

 

Structure of mill is probably C17, rewindowed in C18 with later alterations. Machinery probably early C19 with possibly some earlier features; secondary machinery late C19 and post 1900. Rear wing dated 1923. Documentary evidence for a mill 1528. Existing leat system pre-dates the canal c 1800 and mill sold to Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal Company in 1802. Early C19 miller Alex Gibson provided the village with electricity from a turbine driven generator.  

An intact water-powered cornmill with complete machinery and attached miller's house to NW and secondary generator house to SE. Single long range set across sloping site with leat approaching from Caerfanell Brook on higher ground to S. Original walls of colourwashed rubble, partly coursed, with corrugated iron roof; taller snecked rubble walls to later house wing with Welsh slate roof; brick and slate roofed cross range dated 1923 on W side. Original 2 storey main range has gabled upstand over machinery; first floor has a small window to left, boarded loading doors to centre, casement window right; ground floor openings under cambered arched voussoirs; stone sills. Attached later house wing to right has end stack with cornice, single 2-light casement window to first floor and two to ground floor; original entrance to side. Generator house forward from front left end is a brick, boarded and corrugated iron lean-to. Roughly finished left gable with upper small-paned window over door to timber platform (roof collapsed). Rear has a cambered arched first floor opening to original unit with wide arch for the culvert under the building; 2 storey gabled cross wing separates this from the house wing left with similar windows and catslide roof.  

Interior retains probable C17 A-frame roof trusses with large flat through-purlins. Centre truss cut out for roof upstand over c 1900 machinery including a longtitudinal spindle held in a softwood cradle. Wide original boarded top floor supports a series of hoppers, bins and spouts for grain delivery; hinge hatches for belt-driven sack hoists. Main first-floor with centrally-placed twin pairs of grinding stones flanking the vertical timber drive-shaft with gearing for belt-driven pulleys etc for secondary operations. Inset open timber stairs and massive cross beams to wide boarded floor. Ground floor has boxed- in timber drive shaft and cast-iron gearing for stones, hoists etc; shutes, hopper and secondary machinery. Wheel house within S end of building; overshot wheel with cast-iron spokes to bolted rims and collars to timber axle. The wheel is fed from a timber trough at upper level on W side; the tail race is culverted and stone lined to E side.  

Listed Grade II* on account of the remarkably complete internal machinery; the best preserved example of a workable water mill with an internal waterwheel in Brecknock. Group value with neighbouring listed items in the village.