Park Mill Dam - Page 3 of 4

NO TROUBLE AT THE MILL...

Continued...

The earthwork survey was undertaken in an attempt to gather a more detailed record of the land where the Mill was sited, to look for surviving remains or tell-tale signs on the ground of walls that are buried or overgrown. Three such walls were identified along with evidence of a water course and culvert potentially associated with the Mill as well as possible landscape terracing to create level ground for the Mill construction. The geophysical survey (resistivity) was used to locate any possible sub-surface remains that would be affected by the construction works. This it did, highlighting a number of walls or areas of activity that survived beneath the topsoil.

These survey results provided a number of targets for our evaluation trenches, undertaken ahead of construction to confirm the location of the possible walls. In total, four areas were excavated, three of which were across the area of the main Mill building and all of these picked up structural features beneath the ground. These were further defined when the Watching Brief commenced during the construction of the spillway. The identification of a number of walls confirmed the presence of a large building, with some possibly internal divisions marking rooms. It appears that these relate almost solely to the later Mill building, recorded on the 1838 Tithe map. The only possible feature relating to the earlier structure was a 'robber trench' where the masonry had been taken out, leaving just the foundation trench where the wall had been. One interpretation is that the earlier building was dismantled and the later building erected re-using the same materials, however, it is also possible that this trench relates to the final demolition of Park Mill in 1870.

Plan of recorded features. Click on the different features for more photographs

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