Monument record 4036/1/1 - Crotia Mill

<1> Dodgson J McN, 1970-2, 1981, The Place-Names of Cheshire, Vol.III p.76 (Book). SCH3228.

Crotia Mill: named Cowshall Mill on Bryant’s map (see 2) and Crowfall Mill on the tithe award (see 3). This is possibly ‘le moleyn de schawe’ mentioned in a document of 1398.

<2> Bryant, A., 1831, Map of the County Palatine of Chester (Maps and Plans). SCH2114.

This map depicts the mill pond to the south. It is named Cowshall Mill.

<3> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, EDT 421/2, 1846 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.

This map of 1846 depicts two buildings with a long narrow pond to the immediate south. The buildings are labelled Crowfall Mill. Adjacent plot names suggest this should be Crowshall.

<4> Burdett, P. P., 1777, A Survey of the County Palatine of Chester (Maps and Plans). SCH113.

Depicts a mill at this location.

<5> Bott O J P, 1983, Cornmill sites in Cheshire 1066-1850 Part 2, p.62 (Article in Journal). SCH6105.

There are references, to the mill dating from 1371 (mill field) and 1398 (le moleyn de schawe).

<6> Norris J.H., 1968, The Water-Powered Corn Mills of Cheshire, p.57 (Article in Journal). SCH6001.

‘…A much altered three-storey brick built building with tile roof on a narrow span of 14’ 6” and on two levels. There are some moulded beams, probably from an earlier mill, possibly-fourteenth century, and in the nineteenth century an additional storey was added and the mill extended. Originally there were two wheels, one internal at the north end and the other external to the south gable. There is a Little Giant turbine of 1890, also disused, but power to the stones is maintained by a belt driven by a farm tractor and carried through a hole in the pond side wall connected to shafting in the building…’

<7> Castlering Archaeology, 2010, Crewe Green Link Road (South): Cultural Heritage (Client Report). SCH5647.

A mill is mentioned in legal papers relating to a dispute between the Delves and the Grysley families in the mid-fifteenth century and again in sixteenth century legal documents when the manor was held by the Smyth family.

The 1815 Delves Broughton Estate map (see 8) depicts ‘Crowsal Mill’ accessed by the road from the south. The mill race runs west of the access road and east of the Basford Brook, which forms the parish boundary.

On the Tithe map (see 3) the existing site of Crotia Mill Farm is recorded as ‘Crowfall Mill’. The accompanying apportionment shows that several of the adjoining fields are associated with the mill and all owned by Sir John Delves Broughton and occupied by Richard Speakman at this time.

Nineteenth century Ordnance Survey 6 inch maps depict Crotia (Flour) Mill, together with sluice and millpond. By 1882, the tailrace appears to run north of the mill following the line of several small field boundaries. The 1954 Ordnance Survey 6 inch map depicts the mill site as ‘Crotia Mill Farm’, suggesting that this is now the predominant use of the site. The mill dam and weir recorded by the Ordnance Survey 6 inch provisional map in 1938 are no longer recorded in 1954.

Crotia Mill is included in the Norris’s survey of Cheshire corn mills undertaken in the 1960s (see 6) and that of Bott in 1983 (see 5). Both authors have researched documentary resources associated with the mill site and Norris’s survey includes his comments in respect of the structure. To date, no detailed survey of the existing mill and its source of power appear to have been undertaken.

<8> Wyatt RH, 1815, Map of the Estates of Sir John Delves Broughton in the Parishes of Wybunbury, Audlem, Coppenhall and Barthomley, County of Chester (Maps and Plans). SCH8680.

<9> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ7252, 1877 (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.

This map depicts the mill complex. The mill is probably the north-west to south-east aligned building which adjoins the mill house at its north-western gable end. To the south-east, across a probable yard area is an L-shaped range of outbuildings. The mill pond lies to the south-west and the tail race runs north-east for c.100m before turning to the north and joining another watercourse after a further c.140m. This map also depicts a number of small buildings in the plot to the north-west of the mill house and orchards to the north-east. The mill is named 'Crotia Mill (flour)'.

<10> Ordnance Survey, 1896-1898, Ordnance Survey First Revision County Series (Epoch 2) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ7252, 1898 (Maps and Plans). SCH3848.

Similar to the earlier map (see 9), but the mill and mill house are no longer adjoining. Labelled 'corn'.

<11> CgMs Consulting, 2015, Land at Basford, Crewe, Cheshire: Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment, p.16-7 (Client Report). SCH7835.

‘…The Crotia Mill complex comprises a two-storey L-plan farmhouse, constructed in two phases, in brick with plain tile roof, with single storey outbuildings to the north. A yard is located to the south of the farmhouse, enclosed by a two-storey farm building providing cow-house, stables and hay loft to the south, cart shed to east, both of red brick construction, and mill building to the west. The mill building is constructed of brick and comprises multiple phases of construction. An arched opening is located in the south-west corner of the building for the mill race and a sluice against the north elevation. Externally the buildings appear to be of nineteenth century date. The mill is approached along a tree-lined drive from Mill Lane…’. The farm operated as a corn mill until c. 1940-1960.

<12> Stephen Haigh, Buildings Archaeologist, 2019, Heritage Statement in Support of Planning Application at Crotia Mill Farm, Mill Lane, Weston, Crewe, R4357 (Client Report). SCH8766.

A heritage statement and desk-based assessment was produced in 2019 in support of a proposal for development at Crotia Mill Farm. The site comprises a traditional farmstead typical of the Cheshire plain and includes a watermill, farmhouse, shippon, carthouse and pigsties. Currently all the buildings, except the farmhouse, are redundant. The buildings are not nationally designated but are considered to have heritage significance, additionally, below ground remains associated with the watermill may exist. Proposals include the redevelopment of the watermill, but the demolition of the farmhouse and pigsties.

Cheshire has over 350 historic corn-milling sites (both water and wind-powered), of which around 150 were built between 1700 and 1850; Burdett’s 1777 map of the county shows 140 such mills. Of the 100 or so watermill sites in Cheshire that survive with significant standing remains, the majority date from the eighteenth and ninteenth centuries. This has been attributed to the Napoleonic wars and subsequent Corn Laws, which resulted in a boom in local arable production, and the rebuilding of many mills to meet the greater agricultural output, particularly where large estates were concerned. However, the repeal of the Corn Laws in the 1840s, combined with late nineteenth century mass importation of overseas grain and the invention of roller milling, led to the closure of many watermills, although some continued to produce cattle feed or specialised products.

The existing mill building is a three-storey structure measuring about 16.0m by 5.1m in plan, its long axis running from south-east to north-west. The majority of the visible structure appears to be eighteenth or nineteenth century, but stone footings on the interior may be older, and have the potential to be late medieval.

The shippon, is the most substantial building in the farmstead in terms of ground floor area. It achieved its present form in about 1900; previously, it was a much smaller building which formed the south arm of the L-shaped arrangement shown on the 1898 OS map.

The cart house is also likely to date from circa 1900, as the Ordnance Survey places its construction between 1897 and 1908. It is a two-storey building with flanking single storey wings in line, and there is also a small smith’s forge within a timber-framed and asbestos-cement-clad shed to the rear.

The farmhouse (previously also the miller’s house) comprises an L-shaped building of two storeys, with attached single storey wash-house at the south-west end. It reached its present form in a phased sequence which is not fully understood, but all parts appear to be nineteenth century or later, and the present building outline appears to have been achieved by the late part of that century.

To the west of the farmhouse, the detached group of low, partly ruined outbuildings includes a row of three intact pigsties with fowl house over (described as “new” in 1914, although already shown on the 1898 OS map), together with some earlier pigsties which they appear to have replaced, and other parts of uncertain function, one of which was noted as a WC in 1914.

<13> Stephen Haigh, Buildings Archaeologist, 2019, An Archaeological Assessment of Crotia Mill Farm, Mill Lane, Weston, Crewe, R4358 (Client Report). SCH8767.

Following on from the production of the heritage assessment (source 12), which focussed on the buildings at Crotia Mill Farm, an archaeological desk-based assessment was produced, also in 2019, in support of the proposed development of the Farm.

Below-ground features associated with the watermill are thought likely to exist, in particular close to both long sides of the present building. The pond and sluices were located to the south-west, although the majority of the pond was located outside the present development site boundary. The mill pond is represented by a vegetated depression, and it is reported, but cannot be observed, that stonework of the dam remains buried in this area. On the down-hill, north-east side of the watermill, the tail-race is visible only as a linear depression crossing the present garden, and it appears to have been infilled with large quantities of glass bottles during the mid twentieth century. It is also possible that the footprint of the mill building has itself changed over time, and that buried evidence for earlier phases of the watermill lies outside the present structure.

<14> Oxford Archaeology North, 2022, Land Adjacent to Crotia Mill, David Whitby Way, Basford East, Cheshire: Archaeological Evaluation Report, R4642 (Client Report). SCH9304.

An archaeological trial trench evaluation was undertaken in 2022 on land to the west of Crotia Mill. In total, three trenches were investigated in the south of the wider development area, targeted upon features associated with Crotia Mill, as suggested by late nineteenth-century Ordnance Survey maps. Of these, one trench, located close to the site of the mill pond, was found to contain archaeological remains comprising two poorly preserved timbers, most probably representing the remains of a wooden sluice/gate associated with the mill. A small assemblage of finds, in conjunction with the historic mapping, indicate a late post-medieval date for this feature. No evidence of other mill-related structures, such as a weir or mill pond retaining wall, were encountered in the trenches.