MDE11746 - Barbrook Mill (Monument)

SS 7154 4767. Site of a mill on the east bank of the West Lyn River at Barbrook. A mill is shown and annotated on the 1840 Lynton Tithe Map at SS 7154 4767. The leat, mill wheel and race are also depicted and the area, of about a dozen buildings, is called Barbrook Mill [1]. A local resident remembers the mill being used for grinding corn in 1878. The water wheel (which was probably undershot) and the machinery were all destroyed in the 1952 floods [2]. The mill had presumably gone out of use by 1887 as although a building still appears on the site it is not annotated and the leat and race are not shown on the Ordnance Survey plan [3]. The site is now occupied by a stone building called 'Bridge Cottage' whose west end is probably the original mill but this could not be verified. It is not clear just how much was swept away and what exactly was rebuilt after the floods. There appears to have been a smithy next to the mill buildings but it is not clear when it came into use. The building (MEM23974, SS 7157 4767) is shown on the Lynton Tithe Map [1] but is not annotated as 'Smy' on the Ordnance Survey plan [3] and it is now converted to a house called 'Forge Cottage' (MDE20957). [1-4] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [5]