East Mill / grade II/ steam mill, converted <1>

East mill, on the Colne at East bridge, was held by St. Botolph's in 1311, and remained in the priory's possession until the Dissolution when it was granted to Sir Thomas Audley. It worked as a corn mill until the mid 15th century or later, but was a fulling mill in 1552. Audley conveyed it in 1536 to John Christmas, whose son George sold it in 1554 to John Maynard. The mill was a fulling mill in 1569 and in 1582 when it was run by Maynard's widow Alice. In 1624 it comprised both corn and fulling mills. By the latter part of the C18 East Mills were in the hands of Samuel Wright, who was declared bankrupt by 1783. The corn mills were then expanded by Henry and John Dunnage, millers in the late 18th century, alternatively by Bartholomew Brown and when Edward Marriage bought the mill in 1840 it was a breast or overshot mill with six pairs of French Burr stones. Marriage installed an auxiliary steam engine in 1844, introduced the first silk screen flour dressing machine and subsequently won a diploma for his products at the Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1865 Marriage improved the river above the Hythe to enable London barges to reach the mills. In the 1870s Edwards son Wilson became partner and further improvements were made to the mills and their machinery, including the installation of a second steam engine and the introduction of roller mills. Between 1885 and 1893 the mills were almost completely rebuilt and extended to accommodate a 6-sack roller plant, besides the old mill stones. Warehousing was extended. The mills were renovated in 1930-1 by Rank Hovis McDougall, the mill stones and water wheel being dismantled but were closed by 1976 and converted into an hotel in 1979. It has subsequently been converted into residential apartments.
The East Mills were built on the eastern side of the River Colne and at the junction where it is crossed by East Street and the East Street Bridge (dated 1802). It survives as a large multi period rambling brick built mill sited on a very old mill site. The majority of the mill dates from the later C19 with a roller mill of 1885, warehouse, silo and grain discharging elevators of 1888, main mill building of 1890 and a tower for watertanks and wheat cleaning plant, 1893 (Alderton and Booker, 1980). Attached to the eastern end wall of the front range is a Grade II listed C18 or early C19 mill house (EHER 31172). The front range which presents its façade to East Street is a large 4½ storey, yellow brick, eleven window range with a half-hipped slate covered roof and an off-centre gabled and weatherboarded lucam on wrought iron angle brackets. The off-centre positioning of the lucam, the slight but distinct change in the colour of brickwork between the eastern six and the western five bays, the slight disharmony in the window heights and the inclusion of tie bars in the west bays only, favour the suggestion that the front range was built or rebuilt over two periods. Apart from these slight architectural differences the front range follows a uniform treatment with external strip pilasters topped with simple brick capitals extending between the first floor and the eaves. The windows apertures all have yellow gauged brick segmental arched heads and yellow stone sills and retain their later C19 iron framed ‘industrial’ windows each with 4x3 lights and a central pivoting hopper. A departure in this styling, in the form of taller round headed arches, is used in the end gables. This window treatment was also used in the adjoining earlier red brick range to the rear. Paired modillions extend the length of the front at eaves level while a tier of loading doors rise up from first to third floor beneath the lucam. Each loading doorway has blue bull nosed jambs but have been modernised with the addition of balconettes and part glazed doors. They are positioned above one of two main entrances built side by side in the centre of the range. The eastern of the two is remarkable in that it has an ornate stone surround with a scrolled pediment and the date 1890. To the rear of the western bays is a ?six storey water tower, built in the same yellow brick as the front range and topped with a pyramidal slate covered roof and weather vane. Each face of the upper stage has three tall, narrow round headed arched windows with exaggerated brick keystones set below brick corbelled eaves and triangular dormers. The tower, dating to 1893, is the most visible part of an extension which also incorporates a five storey flat roof range and a corner turret with a pyramidal roof which formerly housed elevators and grain cleaning plant. A canted single storey building with tall Georgian style arch headed windows wraps around the western end wall of the front range. It has a full height opening to the front and ornate brick detailing along the eaves. The architecture style of the building is typical of a steam engine and boiler house .
To the rear of the main range and abutted by the tower to the west is an earlier and slightly taller four storey six bay range. The slate covered roof is gable ended with brick kneelers to a gable parapet and has two large Gothick ventilators piercing the ridge. Built in red brick, (now extensively patch repaired) the uniformity of the walls are disrupted by the use of yellow brick arches to accentuate the window apertures. The windows of the lower storeys have rough brick segmental arches while those of the taller upper storey accordingly have tall round headed arches but built using gauge brickwork. These more elegant windows are repeated in the eastern end elevation and in the later front range. They appear to retain their later C19 iron framed fixed glazed ‘industrial’ windows.
A link from the ‘tower extension’ unites this complex of multi-storey multi-phase roller mills with a pair of ?granaries built parallel but at a short distance to the north. The southernmost of this pair is a large five storey part rendered brick, part timber-framed and weatherboarded range with a half-hipped and slate covered roof. It adjoins along its northern long wall with a slightly larger red brick 4½ storey granary with a half-hipped slate covered roof. Paired modillions are present along the eaves. An unusual weatherboarded loading gantry (1888) supported on cast-iron columns with ornate brackets and a (?later) flexible suction arm for loading barges, projects out to riverside from second floor level of its western gable end wall. Loading doors, now converted to windows, are present at first and second floor in the opposite eastern gable wall, and lie below an aperture formerly carrying a hoist beam or similar. The two lower storeys have been latterly rendered. All the windows are replacement modern casements although some of the original yellow gauge brick flat arch or round arches remain. A two storey yellow brick mill house or office range abuts its northern long wall.
The C19 brick built gate posts to the main entrance still remain adjacent to the Siege House (public house) and form a terminus for the decorative wrought iron railings that front onto East Street and extend across East Street Bridge.
Present Use: Residential/Business
Condition: Good
In common with the majority of the surviving C19 brick built mills in Essex it has been converted into either apartments or used for office/commercial use. However, due to its complicated structural and chronological development, its architectural treatments and historic associations, East Mill survives as one of the foremost examples of a C19 industrialised milling complex within the county. East Mill contributes greatly to the historic character of the North Hill, East Hill, St Johns Green Conservation Area and as a group of buildings, including East Street Bridge, to the street screen along East Street <2>