Mill, site of former water mill, which has become famous through the well known Constable painting. It was demolished in the mid C19 and replaced by a mill with an iron undershot waterwheel and iron pit wheel by 1860. Cast iron sluice and gate and gangway still in position. The present building is reported to have been built in 1913 after a fire in 1908. It had a waterwheel and later a turbine which went out of use at the beginning of the last war. <1>

The Doomesday Book records that Dedham had one mill in 1066 and two in 1086. At least one of these was probably located on the site of the present mill. In the 14th century the corn-mill was converted to a fulling mill and the triangular area of ground between the mill-stream and the Stour filled with public tenter frames. <2>

Dedham mill was an undershot mill driving 8 pairs of stones for grinding corn. It was owned by Constables father Abram Constable until 1846 when it was sold at auction in Ipswich (Beckett, 1955).

Clovers Mill was built astride the River Stour and as such is located at a short distance to the north of the historic core of Dedham and along Mill Lane. The mill site comprises a tall and imposing multi-storey red brick mill with a detached two-storey granary and outbuildings sited along the rivers edge to the south and west. The site was redeveloped in 1987 by the Southend Estates Group PLC who subdivided the mill into residential apartments, converted the granary to domestic use and provided additional accommodation with new build to the west. A pair of C19 brick built cottages to the east of the road and facing the mill may well be mill manager/workers accommodation.
Clovers Mill is aligned approximately N-S across the east flowing River Stour. A by-pass sluice sited adjacent to the mills north-western angle regulates the passage of water through the mill and diverts excess head to large mill pool scoured out immediately to the north. The watercourse is complicated further by the Navigation and Dedham Lock, which diverts around the mill to the north and flows into the same mill pool and eventually the natural course of the river. The mill tail has been culverted between the mill and Mill Lane and continues on an almost straight path east, before turning north to rejoin the Stour along its southern bank. The sluice mechanism remains the same Whitmore and Son mechanism as that reported by Booker in the early 1970s (see above). Five of its six gates are still manually cranked using the original rack and pinion mechanism, the sixth however has in recent times been automated and is opened by an electric motor.
Clovers Mill comprises three distinct builds probably constructed over two periods. The earliest build is the tall five storey red brick range to the front, which appears to predate a plainer four storey building wrapping around its NW angle and a similarly plain, contemporary three storey range to the rear. Although these may be later they were built as part of the mill and are not modern additions associated with its later residential use. The principal front range is seven by three bays and is built in pier and panel construction in red brick in English bond. External strip pilasters are visible at bay intervals between the first floor and the brick parapet. They rise from a projecting stone string course at first floor and terminate below a dentil course which forms part of an over-sailing brick (eaves) band below the parapet. The front range is generally symmetrical apart from a disharmony in the heights of windows between the southern four and northern three bays. The southern four bays are laid out over five storeys with a series of smaller apertures along the upper floor, while the northern bays are laid out over four storeys with a range of taller windows along the top storey. The window positions suggest that the internal floor levels are at odds which each other and that they were internally divided and functionally distinct. All the windows have segmental brick arch heads, plain stone sills and modern replica sash windows of four or six lights. An external gantry or walkway on decorative wrought iron brackets and terracotta corbels projects from the southern elevation at fourth floor. A wrought-iron loggia extends along the ground floor and to the front of the main entrance, which in common with the lower courses of the angles has blue brick dressings. The rear ranges lack the decorative features used in the principal range but share some similarities in fenestration and decorative ironwork. The northern bays of the rear ranges are built onto a steel raft supported on piles which rise out of the river and presumably facilitate unhindered flow of water to the wheel or latterly turbine pit. This feature also enabled barges to moor close up to the mill and below the lucam, which still projects out over the river from the rear three storey range. A pair of loading doors (now reused as patio windows) were positioned below the lucam at ground and first floors.
Present Use: Residential
Condition: Good

SITE SIGNIFICANCE
An early C20 brick built water-powered flour mill which in common with the majority of large brick built water or steam mills has been converted into apartments or is in office/commercial use. The mill contributes toward the historic character of the Conservation Area which includes Dedham Lock, made famous by John Constables painting of the lock and the present mills predecessor <3>