MSO7463 - Haydon Mill / Beckham Mill (Monument)

SS 961 397 Bridles [NAT] [1,2] SS 963 397. Good earthworks of a deserted farm site exist at Bridles. Possibly Medieval. [3] SS 96193979. Beckham Mill (Disused) [NAT] [4] SS 961 397. Shown and named Haydon Mills on the 1843 Tithe Map. A hollow way runs from the nearby deserted medieval site of Thorn (MSO7460, SS 964 398) down to the mill which is now roofless. [Aston does not include any site with the name Bridles in this list of deserted farmsteads on Exmoor]. [5] SS 9620 3982. Hydron, Beckham, Bickham or Clicket Mill. Possible lead off for the leat (or sluice) at SS 9629 3949 but the leat is barely traceable except just south of mill building and in the vicinity of a ruined building N of the sluice. One intact and one broken mill stone in the mill building. Last mention of a miller in 1851. Said to have been last occupied in 1926. [6] It is unclear whether Aston [3] refers to the mill or another location as the site of Bridles. On the Ordnance Survey 1 inch 1st Edition 1809 [2] the name appears to apply to the mill site, but on the OS 1:2500 1904 the name does not appear to be applied to any feature and the mill is named Beckham Mill (disused). Some remains of buildings but little identifiable except position of wheel. Leat silted and infilled. [8] The site includes a mill, millhouse and a linhay, the latter of which may have been modified to form an enclosed outbuilding. The mill house appears to have been of two phases, with the northern section perhaps used as a bakery. The mill had an overshot wheel, with the millstones on an upper floor and the machinery below. The millpond and stone launder were visible during survey, but the pond had been blocked. The mill leat was also traceable in some sections to the south. [9] Much of the site is traceable on 2018 MasterMap data. [10] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [11]