Aren't estate agents funny?

[vicky whitworth]

http://chesterton.reapit.com/chtrpsdets/HON120042.PDF
This property, in which I have no vested interest, is for sale and has been for ages. It has an untouched mill building complete with machinery with a double wheel and yet the details show no pictures of this. The cider house has all its original cider making equipment and yet there's no picture of this. What is the world coming to! Someone PPUK please buy it. It needs a loving new owner.

 

[Sonyaclegg]

It's lovely. Question. Second picture. What is under the board between the beams? I was in a period house with the same recently and they had sagged and didn't look pretty

 

[DJH]

I recognise this property Vicky. I think it needs someone with a bob or two to spend on it.

Sonya, I suspect that the ceilings are the old fashioned fibre board, Celotex perhaps and the joints are covered with strips of timber a method widely used out in the country some years back.....

Doug

 

[Gareth Hughes]

It happens, for once, to be a mill I know and visited a few years ago. Though the agents have hardly done its exceptional special interest any favours, I am very relieved it isn't being marketed as "suitable for conversion to a variety of uses" since it's actually one of the most mechanically fascinating watermills I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot), and is being kept nice and dry and intact by its corrugated iron roof.

 

[DJH]

Gareth, did you ever visit the wheel on the old model farm on the Hestercombe Estate near Taunton?

Doug

 

[Gareth Hughes]

No, I think I've missed the Hestercombe one (I wish I'd labelled my photographs properly at the time, but I'm pretty sure Hestercombe wasn't on any of the mill trips I've done down in the westcountry - though I did go round the gardens quite a while before they started restoring the Georgian park)

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Inside the mill at Chardstock, 2004

 

[vicky whitworth]

Nice picture Gareth. That's exactly how it remains because the current owner is a SPAB member and a leading light in the historical society in the village. The house has been for sale for quite a long time and I think that the challenge of looking after something like this may put people off. Although the estate agents don't suggest that the mill could be converted they say the Cider House has a number of potential uses, subject of course to
planning permission. :evil: Yes, it does have a number of uses - as a cider house. That's what it's used for now. By the villagers to make cider together - and it has its original cider press.

 

[tobydog]

Great looking house but what on earth have they done to the thatch on the rear?. That is one messy eyesore from that angle and I don't see how they could get so many roof lights in without a leak somewhere. I can only assume they were fitted before it was listed.

 

[Lime]

According to the pdf it has been flooded several times.

 

[DJH]

Have you seen this little book Gareth? I know quite a few of these mills especially Nimmer Mill which was laterly a brush mill making shaving brushes, hair brushes and even tooth brushes. The company moved out many years ago and situated themselves next door to me on an industrial park next to Dowlish Ford Mills who were Clarks Shoes at on time and now a very high tec quartz crystal company.

By coincidence a short time ago the last turner from Nimmer who could turn a gross of shaving brush handles a day freehand by eye and memory as to the style of handle has passed away. Here's a selection of brushes he made for me........the one in the middle at the back is box filled with 'silver tip' badger hair and on the right at the back is Mongolian badger. The handles are a selection of horn, shell and no ivory but a resin lookalike. I have a box of very old unfilled handles of various materials that I rescued from their skip...



and the book I was talking about





Doug

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I think "Mills of the Isle" is on my shelves somewhere, just don't ask me to find it :roll:

 

[vicky whitworth]

I'm excited about the book. We nearly bought a cottage on the Isle but were scared off by the stream running right along the walls. It was called Isle Cottage - how did they think of the name :lol: I think we made the right decision as I'm sure it will have flooded recently. I will have to see if I can get a copy.

Yes, the rooflights are horrendous. My recollection is that they have been recently replaced - possibly even inserted - I seem to recall the listed building consent going up. I have never seen this done before in thatch. I like the honesty of admitting it has been flooded twice. Drainage is my speciality - well drainage in Chardstock is my speciality. There is 'flood defence' scheme being built - it involves flooding water meadows upstream from the mill like it used to happen years ago. If I owed it I'd want to re-start the mill, open up the leat, see that wheel spin.