[Article from York Georgian Society Annual Report 1966-67]

 

Howsham Water-Mill

 

By James E Williams (E.R.D., A.R.C.A., F.S.A.)

 

The mill was constructed for the Cholmeley family of Howsham Hall, circa 1755, possibly to the designs of the then popular architect John Carr of York.  No documentary evidence has been found for ascribing the building to him, but on stylistic grounds based on his Gothic exercises elsewhere (especially in the West Riding), it seems there is little doubt that this charming structure is from his hand[1].  Some of the features appearing here are to be found on Carr’s church designs at Ravenfield, Dewsbury and Denton.

 

It can be shown that Carr found inspiration from the works of William Kent in his Palladian style buildings, and it would be very probable that Kent’s Georgian Gothic served a similar purpose.  At Rousham, Oxfordshire, for the ’Temple of the Mill’, Kent employed typical features of his Gothic style, quatrefoil openings, and openings with pointed arches under straight Tudor labels – all present at Howsham Mill.  Batty Langley (1696 – 1751), the prolific author of architectural textbooks, published in 1742, “Gothic Architecture Restored and Improved”.  This again may well have served as inspiration to the builder of themill, as was the case with the attractive Gothic temple at Bramham Park, almost certainly erected by James Paine after a design by Batty Langley.

 

Further illustrating the fashion of the Georgian Gothic style in Yorkshire at this period, during the years 1763 – 69, is the re-modelling of the archiepiscopal palace at Bishopthorpe by the York architect Thomas Atkinson, who was also employed by a member of the Cholmeley family for the design of the classical church at Brandsby.

 

The mill at Howsham served a dual purpose, firstly to utilise the strong flow of the River Derwent in driving an undershot water-wheel, and the secondary role to serve as an ‘eye-catcher’ – a decorative landscape feature to be observed from the Hall and its approaches.  The machinery has long been idle, and the mill no longer serves the second purpose, as trees and undergrowth form an effective screen hiding the ruined building’s location.

 

The mill was in productive use early in the present century, when it was rented to a miller by the name of Wilson-Remmer during the period 1903 - 05[2].  During the Second World War the mill was in use and the illustration (Fig 1) is a drawing made from a postcard of that time[3].  But with the selling of the Howsham estate, the property was split up, and the mill became neglected;  damage was caused wilfully by intruders, and this vandalism permitted the elements to hasten the decay.  In more recent times some fire damage to timbers supporting the main drive machinery has caused the collapse of the geared assembly.  Most of the decorative stonework above the eaves level, such as the crocketed finials, and the centre-pieces to the main elevations, have fallen and much of the painted tracery and astragals of the ‘dummy’ windows weathered away.

 

The mill is square in plan, measuring 26ft overall, and adjoining it, on the west, a lower building of rubble and brick construction, housing the metal undershot wheel, and some storage space.  The wheel appears to be a replacement of the 19th-century date.  The building is roughly aligned to the cardinal points, with the three main elevations to the north, east and south; all three are carried out in ashlar, and the fourth side towards the river is in brick, with the return angles in ashlar.

 

All three main elevations were symmetrical, with a plain chamfered plinth, a plain continuous band situated some 12 ft above the ground, and a similar band at the eaves.  In the centre of each elevation is an ogee-arched recess, with a simple moulded architrave (see detail drawing, fig II).  To either side of the recess are ‘windows’ with pointed arches and simple labels over them.  Above these openings are recessed quatrefoils, plaster rendered and painted to simulate windows.  At the corner angles above the eaves are crocketed finials, with the cubical pedestals having sunk quatrefoil panels to the outer faces – these again are rendered and painted to imitate leaded lights.  At the centre were dormer ‘windows’; each consisted of a depressed ogee-headed dummy window with the ashlar surround carried above and surmounted by a finial, about the window the intrados of the surround is cusped.  Crocket-finials on pedestals flanked the window; these had narrow sunk panels on the front faces.

 

The slate roof is pyramidal in form, and was formerly surmounted by a statuette representing a goddess.  The main elevation to the east, facing towards Howsham hall, is different from the north and south elevations as it has an ogee-headed window with two lancet lights and a lozenge-shaped light to the head, beneath a carved terminal of leaves.  The mullion is square externally and chamfered internally: the openings were originally glazed with leaded lights.  The south front has a doorway set within the central recess; it has a two-centred arched head, with a simple square label above.  An assortment of graffiti appears about the door and jambs of the recess[4].  In the head of the recess is a corbel-bracket that formerly carried a sun-dial.  The window to the west of the entrance retains its iron stanchions, and was originally filled with leaded panes, the balancing opening to the east of the centre is a dummy window.  The north elevation originally had a doorway similar to that in the south elevation but it has been badly mutilated by considerable heightening – possibly to enable the installation of replacement machinery in the 19th-century or more recent times.  The window to the west of the doorway was originally glazed, but the other to the east was always blind.

 

The interior is of brick construction.  The western half of the building is mostly occupied by the great cast-iron drive wheel, and the crown wheel set above it.  The heavy timbers that support this assembly have been destroyed by fire in recent years.  The timbers of the upper floor, supporting the crown wheel and pinion at the head of the main drive spindle, have escaped fire damage but are in a constantly damp condition, and will no doubt collapse under the burden before long.  The horizontal drive axle with its belt drive pulleys and a crown wheel and pinion at the eastern end remain in-situ.

 

The roof has lost much of its slate covering, with the result that many of the subsidiary softwood timbers, such as rafters, have rotted away though the main members of oak appear to be sound.  The four principal rafters at the angles rest on stub dragon-beams in the upper corners of the building.  Short of the apex, purlins are set forming a square, and at the angles of the square, the purlins are supported by enlarged rafters.

 

I am indebted to my colleague Mr D W Black for his reconstruction drawing of the elevation and plan.  It is to be regretted that this building of considerable architectural interest should have been allowed to fall into decay.


[1] RB Wragg in his article on “John Carr: Gothic Revivalist” in Vol II York Institute of Architectural study, 1956, makes reference to the mill.  “Less familiar Gothic structures which might well be efforts of the Yorkshireman are King Arthur’s Castle, Leeds…and the Mill at Howsham Hall by the Cholmeleys who, if we cannot prove to have employed Carr, were at least closely related to the Stricklands who did.”

[2] A letter from Mr A Wilson-Remmer of Lockton, Pickering, dated 28 September 1965, states “My family ran Howsham Mill for centuries on behalf of the estate.  In 1903 the mill was rented to my late father at a low rent, but he gave it up in October 1905 because it did not pay.”

[3] Miss F Wright of the York Castle Museum staff, kindly lent me a postcard photograph of the mill as it appeared when complete.  She saw the mill in operation during the 1939-45 war.

[4] The graffiti that appear about the south doorway bear a wide assortment of initials and dates, the earliest of which, carved twice, is 1760