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This early eighteenth century watermill lies hidden at the bottom of the valley, surmounted by a 'frivolous' (John Julius Norwich) leaded cupola and weather vane. It is a listed historic building, completely restored to provide the ultimate in holiday accommodation. Contemporary in comfort and style, the whole building is like a time warp. It has unrivalled character and charm, with features of the old mill carefully preserved. There are beams, bolting and cleaning machinery, shutes, hursts and traps inside, furnished with cottage antiques. Outside is the gigantic mill-wheel, with race and pan trough. The mill pond is a haven for wild life, coming right up to the building.
INTERIOR
The ground floor has an entrance hall leading to a large open-plan kitchen-cum-dining/living room, with a snug wood-burning stove. The kitchen is in fitted pine, with dishwasher, fridge/freezer, microwave and an antique pine table set with ash chairs designed by Gimson.
The first floor (stone floor of the mill) sleeps four. The master bedroom has a rare and opulent early eighteenth-century oak four-poster bed. The second bedroom has twin beds. There is a bathroom and ample landing with the original loading-door opening to the west.
The second floor (granary floor), opened for larger parties, is reached by the original elm stairs. It acts as a hide for the bird life on the mill pond, with early 19th-century bolting machinery carefully preserved. Here is a large double bedroom and an open children's room, with two single beds. A second bathroom makes this four-bedroomed cottage comfortable for eight guests. Above this floor is a gantry cat-walk. A sack-hoist hangs in the cupola, whence light filters down through successive levels of glazed floor lights set in the traps.
The Grist Mill has its own drive and enclosed garden offering complete serenity, with the constant murmur of the Ewelme brook running gently by.
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A mill is recorded at Owlpen by 1280. Then we hear that in 1464, Jane de Olepenne, after a protracted lawsuit over her inheritance, agreed to pay 13s.4d. towards the cost of rebuilding it. However the present building is largely the result of a further restoration by Thomas Daunt V in 1726. He clearly intended this rare early Georgian 'grist' (or corn) mill, with its elaborate lantern, cupola and classical proportions, to be an eye-catching feature of his gardens, rather than merely a run-of-the-mill industrial building. Its intriguing mechanisms continued to
grind meal through famine (when it was doled to the poor) and
plenty to 1914. Then it pumped water from the springs that still
feed the ponds behind the mill to Owlpen House, the grand Victorian mansion
whose ruins stand on the dry plateau above the Owlpen valley. |
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