Cogglesford Mill

Cogglesford Mill
Lincolnshire
Cogglesford Mill
Type:	Watermill
Location
Grid reference:	TF07464613
Location:	53°0’6"N, 0°24’1"W
Village:	Sleaford
History
	Built 18th century
	Watermill
Information
Condition:	working
Website:	Cogglesford Mill

Cogglesford Mill is a working, Grade II listed watermill in Sleaford, Lincolnshire. It is possibly the last working Sheriff's Mill in Britain.

The mill stands to the north of Sleaford on banks of River Slea. There is archaeological evidence of a Saxon mill on the site and records in the Domesday Book of later mills; the present redbrick structure dates to the late 18th century, with alterations from the 19th Century.

Weir at Cogglesford Mill

The ford from which the mill takes its name is where the Roman road now called Mareham Lane crossed the Slea. The original crossing, no longer extant, is a few hundred yards downstream of the mill, close to the current footbridge.

There were many other mills along the river at various times. During the construction of the Sleaford Navigation, in the 1790s, locks were provided at each of the mills to maintain the necessary head. After the navigation closed and as the locks fell into repair they were replaced by weirs, and the weir at Cogglesford is particularly elaborate, having to maintain the head of this still working mill.

Cogglesford mill (including the mill race and bridge) was assigned a listed status on 20 July 1973. The mill is open to the public 7 days a week during the summer and Organic stoneground flour is milled there and sold in shop.

Pictures

• 
  The Mill pond
• 
  The mill from upstream
• 
  The entrance to the enclosed race, with the overflow weir alongside
• 
  Remains of the lock constructed for the Navigation of the river
• 
  The mill in November
• 
  A view of the great spur wheel and stones
• 
  The Pit wheel and wallower
• 
  The Sack hoist

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Cogglesford Mill)

• Cogglesford Mill
• Photographs of the Sleaford Navigation
• Sleaford Navigation Trust
• Photographs of repairs to the Wheel, by the craftsman involved

References

• National Heritage List 1062115: Cogglesford Mill

Further reading

• Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, 1964; 1989 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09620-0
• S. A. Savage: Cogglesford Mill, Eastgate, Sleaford, 2007 (Lincoln: Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd.)