Building record KSY 019 - Kersey Mill

Kersey mill is a large three and a half storey building with a valley roof. The mill was a water and engine driven stone mill (S1). The interior contains some of the original mill machinery.

The mill ceased work in 1929 and gradually became derelict. It was sold to the present owners in 2012 who embarked on a phased repair of the mill, with the aim of being able to mill again by water power. The waterwheel and sluices have been repaired and structural work to the timber frames and floors has been complete. The building is entirely timber-framed and replaced a brick-built mill. The mill had been rebuilt by 1816 and the work could have started c.1810. The 1810 mill contained three pairs of millstones mounted on a heavy wooden 'table' called a hurst frame, which still survives. Around the 1850s the original wooden machinery was replaced by cast iron, the present iron waterwheel dates from this time. In the late 1860s the mill was enlarged by two-thirds with a parallel range to the rear. This contained a steam engine which drove three further pairs of millstones as well as belt drives to other machinery. Conveyors were installed to collect the meal from all six pairs of stones and move it horizontally to an elevator, which transported it to a 24ft long sifting machine on the second floor. A further refinement was a dust extraction system, much of which survives. The steam mill was built by the famous Suffolk millwrights Whitmore & Binyon of Wickham Market. The present two storey wheelhouse was added sometime after the steam mill was built, likely in the 1870s. By 1990 nearly all the brick ground floor of the wheelhouse was missing and only parts of the front wall are now original. A single-storey lean-to was added to the rear of the wheelhouse by 1884, this has now disappeared. Steam is recorded as a power source for the mill as late as 192 but it probably ended during WWI. It is suggested that at around this time the steam engine was scrapped and the chimney demolished. A Tangye gas engine was installed in the wheelhouse on the 1920s and this could power one or two stones and two crushers, as well as the sack hoist. These machines were the only ones in use when the mill closed in 1929 (S2).

Post-medieval water mill, now derelict, complete in a grouping of buildings, weather boarded and slated roof. Iron wheel and auxilliary machinery survives (S3).