Trafford Mill

The earliest documentary reference to the Trafford Mill is in the Cheshire Chamberlains' Accounts of 1302–03. Further documentary records of the mill are in 1464 in the records of the Troutbeck family and in the Land Tax returns between 1784 and 1832. The building was offered for lease in an October 1767 edition of the Chester Chronicle. It was described in that advertisement in the form it is in now as 'this new built corn mill' thus dating the building at around 1760, nearly 100 years older than previously thought. It was sold at the Shrewsbury Sale of 1917 at which time it consisted of a three-floor corn mill, including two undershot water wheels (one of which was out of repair), a…

It's an L-shaped building constructed largely in brick with a Welsh slate roof and a brick chimney. There is evidence that at least part of the foundations are laid on an oak raft though the foundations at the northern end appear to be sandstone. It has a long L-shaped plan in two storeys with a 12-bay west front. The current mill was built in the 18th century. Two wheels and wheelpits are present. The north wheelpit has a cast-iron single-spoke wheel connected to flour sifting machinery that is dated 1883. It is thought that this end of the building was built on mediaeval foundations. This would explain the installation of a single-spoke wheel as this form is the only one narrow enough to…