Black Pool mill

This building houses probably the only complete Joseph Armfield installation in the UK. It is a historical masterpiece that the Pembrokeshire Coast National Parks Authority seem prepared to let drift into ruin and decay

Built in 1813 on the site of the former Blackpool ironworks. The mill was designed for symmetry, with a central main entrance and with its main block flanked by equal low wings at each end. The original water-wheel was 4.5 m diameter and 3.5 m in width, on a wrought-iron shaft and was beneath the main block of the mill. New machinery was installed by Armfield in 1910 powered by  a turbine and continued in use until after the second World War. In 1958 the mill was converted to electricity. In 1968 a program of restoration of the mill was commenced by Lady Victoria Dashwood to convert the mill to a tourist attraction. This in turn failed and since then the building has fallen into a state of disrepair. Previously the owners of Bluestone National Parks Resort produced a £2.5million plan to restore the mill by incorporating it into its tourist facilities. As the mill has failed as a flour mill and as a museum because of lack of turnover it must become a sustainable project. Although the Parks Authority have approved the conversion, they didn't approved the supporting works to generate the funds to make the mill viable and sustainable as an Education facility, a Tourist attraction and one that would have created around 60 new jobs by the erection of a new events barn and other facilities. After spending around £250,000 on the application it was withdrawn.

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Elevation showing the main equipment with front wall removed at time of survey in 2017

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Elevation with rear wall removed

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The above drawings show the original setup with the sack hoist in the roof and the turbine drive.

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Elevator’s and screw conveyors

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In 1958 the sack hoist was removed from the attic and modified to provide a make shift electrical drive. At this time the mill was only used for storing corn and preparation of the tenant farmers animal feed. Bluestone had intended to relocate the equipment back into its original position as shown in the long layouts above.

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Thanks to the Efforts of Bluestone the building has been saved and now looks like this. The lower floors and wings have been converted into a Heritage Dining Restaurant

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Dust extraction system from mill stones & Plenum chamber

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This image above shows the equipment as existing (apart from position of the original sack hoist mechanism in the attic) The hoist frame is shown in its current position as part of the electrical drive on the right hand side above an unconnected scalper that has been located as a barrier to control public access when it was a museum. The bottom covers of the plenum chamber are not shown. The turbine is still in position. There is an additional belt drive into the basement for an external device? from a small pully adjacent to the main belt drive that is not shown.

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This is how the mill looked some time ago,

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Thanks to reviews about the food and the restaurant by ‘Ellen’ here are a couple of photos showing the interior of the the stone floor now  Click on the logo to visit her website

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Click on the image to connect to the Black Pool mill website