Building record MDO3602 - High Street Factory, Bourton

A cloth mill built in 1820. The building is single storey with basements, and has rubble walls with ashlar dressings and a tiled roof. A former machine house adjoins the north end of the main range, and originally housed a water race and overshot water wheel.

ST 77713087. Cloth Mill (shown as High Street Factory (disused) on OS 6" 1962), is single-storeyed with basements and has walls of rubble with ashlar dressings, and tiled roofs. It was built in 1820; the doorway at the centre having 'WIJ 1820' inscribed above the keystone. Adjoining the north end of the main range is the former machine-house, with openings for a water race which led to an overshot water-wheel, now removed. <2>

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1864, 1886, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch one, Wiltshire LXII.12 Surveyed: 1885 to 1886, Published: 1888 (Map). SDO10239.

'High Street Factory (Flax &c)'

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 5 (Monograph). SDO99.

'(5) CLOTH MILL (77713087), single-storeyed with basements, has walls of rubble with ashlar dressings, and tiled roofs (Plate 31); it was built in 1820. The main range has a symmetrical E. front of five bays with segmental-headed openings; the door-way at the centre has 'WIJ 1820' inscribed above the keystone; below, the basements have segmental-headed windows. On the W. front the falling ground allows the basement to be open, with three large round-headed archways and one segmental-heded archway. Adjoining the N. end of the main range is the former machine-house, with openings for a water-race which led to an overshot water-wheel, now removed.'

<3> Stanier, Peter, 1989, Dorset's Industrial Heritage, 38 (Monograph). SWX1300.

‘BOURTON CLOTH MILLS ... A second cloth mill of 1820 was behind the premises of the Bourton Fencing Co. beside the main road through this north Dorset village [ST 777309].’

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 202631 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jun 25 2024 10:48AM