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43-557: Ifield Water Mill is a 19th-century weatherboarded watermill in the Ifield neighbourhood of Crawley , a town and borough in West Sussex , England . Built on the site of an earlier, smaller flour mill, which itself replaced an iron forge —one of many in the Crawley area—it fell into disuse in the 1930s. The local council, which acquired the land for housing development in the 1970s, leased

86-493: A 50-year period in which various combinations of partners owned it. By this time it was the largest corn mill in the area; when Napoleon threatened to invade the United Kingdom , a survey was undertaken to determine the output of all mills, which found that Ifield Mill could supply 16 sacks of flour and 120 loaves of bread each day. Other local mills could manage no more than four sacks per day. Despite its efficient output,

129-465: A picturesque disused water mill", it was clear that the mill's importance had ebbed away. The mill stood unused, apart from for storage, and nominally for sale until Crawley Borough Council used a compulsory purchase order to buy it in 1974. The council was acquiring land on the edge of Ifield for housing. It allowed a group of volunteers to attempt to restore the mill, which was in poor structural condition. Work started on 15 June 1974. All parts of

172-553: A similar problem started to affect the Ifield mill soon after it was rebuilt. The water supply began to fail as the brook's flow became weaker, and in 1848 the mill pond was cut in half by the building of the railway line to Horsham . This originally crossed it on a bridge, but an embankment soon replaced it. Also, in 1837, a competing windmill had been built near the centre of the village, and two other millers were recorded in Ifield parish by 1821. Gradual decline continued throughout

215-448: A study recorded 58 species. The soil is considered to be of good quality, which improves the chances of suitable vegetation becoming established. Ifield Water Mill is a tall, externally weatherboarded structure of three storeys, consisting of a brick-built ground floor and two gabled upper floors of timber. The slate roof has eaves carried out beyond the walls on brackets . The mill hoist , whose surrounding timberwork and brickwork

258-507: Is always referred to as weatherboard in New Zealand. Newer, cheaper designs often imitate the form of clapboard construction as siding made of vinyl ( uPVC ), aluminum , fiber cement , or other man-made materials. These materials can provide a lightweight alternative to wooden cladding. Arun Valley Line The Arun Valley line , also known as the Mid Sussex line , is part of

301-664: Is disruption and then a section from Portsmouth Harbour arrives. Once the train has attached it runs semi fast to London Victoria via the Horsham Branch Line (Horsham to Three Bridges) and the fast Quarry Line . Each of the up services arrive with normally a 10-minute interchange for the Thameslink services to Peterborough via Redhill and London Bridge and the one closest the hour for the Mole Valley service towards London Victoria via Dorking. Based on December 2006 timetable, prior to

344-734: Is rotated 5 ⁄ 8 inch (16 mm) until it has turned 360°. This gives the radially sawn clapboard its taper and true vertical grain. Flat-grain clapboards are cut tangent to the annual growth rings of the tree. As this technique was common in most parts of the British Isles , it was carried by immigrants to their colonies in the Americas and in Australia and New Zealand . Flat-sawn wood cups more and does not hold paint as well as radially sawn wood. Chamferboards are an Australian form of weatherboarding using tongue-and-groove joints to link

387-573: The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) between 1848 and 1863, creating what was then known as Mid-Sussex route to Portsmouth. A single track branch line was opened on 14 February 1848, with passing places at the intermediate stations at Crawley and Faygate . The line was doubled throughout in 1862. The stations now at Ifield and Littlehaven were not opened with the line, both being opened on 1 June 1907: Ifield as Lyons Crossing Halt and Littlehaven as Rusper Road Halt ; both serving

430-599: The Lottery Heritage Fund a new waterwheel was constructed in steel. Efforts have been made to improve the ecological and wildlife balance of the mill pond and the surrounding area. The northern part of the pond had to be drained in 1976 during the reconstruction work, and trees started to become established in the bed; the part south of the railway line, meanwhile, was described as a "virtual desert" ecologically. By 1979, however, it had been restocked with more than 30,000 fish, and birds quickly became established again:

473-525: The Portsmouth line to reach Horsham. However, with the increase in demand at Gatwick Airport , the mainline services were re-routed in 1978 to serve the airport and then travel via Three Bridges. The line was electrified using the (750 V DC third rail) system by the Southern Railway in 1938 as part of the proposals to electrify the lines from London to Portsmouth. This originally only covered

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516-784: The Southern - and Thameslink -operated railway services. For the initial part of the route trains follow the Brighton Main Line , and at a junction south of Three Bridges the route turns westwards. It then runs via Crawley , Horsham (where there is a junction with the Portsmouth Line ) and Arundel , before meeting the West Coastway line at Arundel Junction . Trains on the Arun Valley line then proceed to either Bognor Regis or Portsmouth Harbour . Many stations on this line retain

559-464: The Southgate neighbourhood, a temporary museum and exhibition was housed in the mill. The mill house and cottage were also bought by the council as part of their land acquisition programme, and have been leased to private tenants since then. The mill house, a 16th-century half-timbered building with modern additions in brick, is now a public house . It has an original tiled hipped roof , but much of

602-494: The 19th and 20th centuries; the mill passed through many owners, and even one long-established family of owner-millers, the Hardings, struggled. A steam engine driven by a waterwheel had been installed, but the engine often had to be worked manually because the water power was so feeble. The mill was no longer in use by 1927, and it was put up for sale with the adjacent Mill Cottage in 1934. Described as "a gentleman's residence with

645-492: The British Isles, and the style may be part of all types of traditional building, from cottages to windmills, shops to workshops, as well as many others. In New Zealand, clapboard housing dominates buildings before 1960. Clapboard, with a corrugated iron roof, was found to be a cost-effective building style. After the big earthquakes of 1855 and 1931, wooden buildings were perceived as being less vulnerable to damage. Clapboard

688-467: The Mole) which ran from the furnace at nearby Bewbush , 1 mile (1.6 km) to the southwest. The brook was dammed in the 16th century to form a mill pond , which provided power for the forge. By 1606, "a house, barn, mill, mill pond and two crofts of land known as Ifield Mill and Ifield Mill Pond" had been established. The Middletons, a rich local family who owned many ironworks across Sussex , leased

731-412: The board cladding on the inside walls and the wooden floors were all renewed, and all windows were refitted to their original design. On the exterior, the weatherboarding was removed and a layer of waterproof cladding installed. Much of the boardwork had to be replaced, although the original appearance was preserved. The roof was also repaired inside and out to prevent it decaying any further. Replacing

774-441: The boards together to give a flatter external appearance than regular angled weatherboards. Some modern clapboards are made up of shorter pieces of wood finger jointed together with an adhesive. In North America clapboards were historically made of split oak, pine and spruce. Modern clapboards are available in red cedar and pine. In some areas, clapboards were traditionally left as raw wood, relying upon good air circulation and

817-462: The boards were radially sawn in a type of sawmill called a clapboard mill , producing vertical-grain clapboards. The more commonly used boards in New England are vertical-grain boards. Depending on the diameter of the log, cuts are made from 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 to 6 + 1 ⁄ 2 inches (110 to 170 mm) deep along the full length of the log. Each time the log turns for the next cut, it

860-410: The building was remodelled in the 20th century in the style of the old structure. It was listed at Grade II on 1 May 1974. The cottage is not listed separately by English Heritage . It was built in the 16th or 17th century as a barn, but was converted to residential use in the 1930s. An illustration of the water mill was painted by the artist, Denys Ovenden, in 2015 and shows a scene from 1848 when

903-467: The difficulty of many of the tasks, the restoration was carried out almost entirely by volunteers working mostly at weekends. Some unemployed people enrolled in a job creation programme were briefly used, but no professional engineers, construction personnel or other qualified workers were employed at any time during the eight-year process. The wooden parts of the waterwheel in this reconstruction rotted after about 30 years, so with some financial help from

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946-439: The industry. The site of Ifield forge was cleared, and a corn mill was built in its place. (At the time, the generic name "mill" was used to describe forges, and their operators were called "millers" or "farmers". This makes it difficult to determine exactly when the change happened.) It was definitely operating by 1660, when a local Quaker , William Garton, operated it. He was regularly imprisoned for his religious beliefs over

989-429: The introduction of the train split at Horsham and the non-stop services Horsham to Barnham. In 2016 most of the off-peak fast services reached Barnham in 80–81 minutes and Chichester in 88; peak-hour services were slightly slower. Stations in italics are served by through trains but are not part of the Arun Valley line. Based on December 2006 timetable. Stations in italics are served by through trains but are not part of

1032-524: The line, The Black Rabbit Bridge (just north of Arundel ) and the Peppering Bridge (a few hundred yards further on) were replaced during the August Bank Holiday weekend of 2009. The line was completely closed to traffic during these major engineering works and a replacement bus service served stations between Arundel and Pulborough . As the two-week Arundel Festival was drawing to a close over

1075-437: The load-bearing timbers and supports was particularly difficult. The whole building had to be lifted with hydraulic jacks and suspended aloft temporarily while new timbers were installed. Work on the water wheel and its surrounding brick structure was also difficult and took several years. Parts of the wheel were salvaged and incorporated into the rebuilt oak and steel structure. The walls supporting it were totally rebuilt at

1118-510: The mill and its associated buildings. They were also tenants of the Bewbush furnace. The Sussex iron industry declined quickly in the mid-17th century. Bewbush furnace closed in 1642 because the area had been completely deforested and there was no more wood to use for fuel; the following year, as the English Civil War raged, Parliamentarians overran the area and destroyed all remnants of

1161-407: The mill fell into disuse in the 1810s after London-based businessman Abraham Goldsmid bought it in 1809. It lay unused for eight years until Thomas Durrant, a miller from nearby Merstham , bought it for £1,200 in 1817. Durrant was the first owner who also acted as miller, and under his ownership the mill was completely rebuilt. The 1683 building was demolished and the structure which stands today

1204-458: The mill to local enthusiasts, who restored it to working order. The mill and an associated house are listed buildings, and there is also a cottage (not listed) on the site. The area around Ifield was originally thickly wooded, forming part of St Leonard's Forest . Small brooks and tributaries of the River Mole run through the soil, which is an area of Weald clay between the sandier soil to

1247-499: The next 25 years, even though Ifield was a hotbed of Nonconformism (being the site of one of the first Quaker meeting houses in the world). The mill was a small-scale operation at first, but as the milling process became more efficient it was able to expand. It was rebuilt in 1683. The Middleton family owned the mill and its associated buildings outright by this time; another prosperous local businessman, Leonard Gale, bought it in 1715. By 1759 it had passed out of his family and began

1290-443: The outskirts of their nearby towns. An additional stop was opened at Roffey Road Halt ; however this station was closed in 1937, as the land next to the station had remained undeveloped. The Midhurst Railways line from Horsham to Pulborough , Petworth and Midhurst was opened on 10 October 1859. The section from Hardham Junction to Midhurst was closed between 1964 and 1966. The Steyning Line from Horsham to Shoreham by Sea

1333-505: The railway between Crawley and Horsham crossed the millpond on a wooden trellis viaduct. The painting subsequently appeared on a limited edition Royal Mail postage stamp. Weatherboarding Clapboard , in modern American usage, is a word for long, thin boards used to cover walls and (formerly) roofs of buildings. Historically, it has also been called clawboard and cloboard . In the United Kingdom , Australia and New Zealand ,

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1376-614: The same time. A sluice gate was built across the mill pond, and a flow control mechanism was brought in from the disused Hammonds Mill in Burgess Hill , also in West Sussex. The wheel is of the overshot type—the largest such wheel in Sussex—weighs around 6 long tons (6.1 t; 6.7 short tons), has a diameter of 11 feet (3.4 m) and can rotate at between 8 and 15 revolutions per minute depending on water flow. Despite its scale and

1419-704: The section from Horsham to Littlehampton and Barnham, as the main line was the line through Dorking and Sutton , as opposed to the line to Three Bridges, but plans were extended to electrify the "branch" as well in the same year. Electric services were provided by electric multiple units . For most of the rest of the twentieth century, an hourly express service was provided which joined/divided at Barnham , with 4 or 8 coaches continuing to Bognor and 4 to Portsmouth Harbour. This called at Arundel, Pulborough and latterly Billingshurst, going via Sutton and Dorking. An all-stations stopping service also ran hourly via Crawley to Bognor Regis, usually via Littlehampton. Two bridges on

1462-411: The short platforms which were originally built, not being extended by the Southern Railway when the line was modernised in the 1930s, nor by any subsequent operators. This causes operational difficulties to this day, which require frequent platform and on-train announcements with longer trains, telling passengers they must travel in the correct part of the train. The line was opened in three stages by

1505-536: The south and a narrow outcrop of limestone further north. At least one mill had been established in the village by the 13th century, although this was further north. No records of its ownership survive, but tithe documents refer to it several times and it may have belonged to the Lord of the Manor. An iron forge existed on the site by the late 16th century. The Lord of the Manor owned the section of Ifield Brook (a tributary of

1548-506: The structure were affected by the neglect and long period of disuse. Trees had invaded the building, dislodging the roof; the main timbers holding the building up were rotting and needed replacement; a retaining wall had collapsed inwards; and the water wheel, while still sound, was embedded in the mud. The work took eight years—much longer than the original estimate of three, although large donations of money paid for many interior fittings which had not been taken into account. Three staircases,

1591-475: The term weatherboard is always used. An older meaning of "clapboard" is small split pieces of oak imported from Germany for use as barrel staves, and the name is a partial translation (from klappen , "to fit") of Middle Dutch klapholt and related to German Klappholz . Clapboards were originally riven radially by hand producing triangular or "feather-edged" sections, attached thin side up and overlapped thick over thin to shed water. Later,

1634-473: The train closest to the hour has a front portion which is fast to Barnham then stopping to Portsmouth Harbour. The rear portion calls at all stations to Bognor Regis. The 30-minutes-past train's front portion again runs fast to Barnham then is semi-fast to Portsmouth Harbour. The rear section again calls all stations to Bognor Regis. Up-line service: Again two trains an hour, both services attach at Horsham. The Bognor Regis section always arrives first unless there

1677-431: The use of 'semi-hardwoods' to keep the boards from rotting. These boards eventually go grey as the tannins are washed out from the wood. More recently clapboard has been tarred or painted—traditionally black or white due to locally occurring minerals or pigments. In modern clapboard these colors remain popular, but with a hugely wider variety due to chemical pigments and stains. Clapboard houses may be found in most parts of

1720-500: The weekend, Southern maintained a service into the station from the West Coastway Line from Bognor Regis via Barnham and Ford, and a reversal at Littlehampton. There are currently four trains per hour in each direction over the route off-peak, made up of twin portions from two trains per hour from London Victoria. This is the most frequent service on the route since the late 1970s. Down-line services: Both divide at Horsham,

1763-433: Was built in its place. A decorative stone tablet with the date 1683 and the initials of Thomas Middleton and his wife Mary was salvaged and mounted on the exterior. (Middleton was the owner at the time of the 1683 rebuilding.) Thomas Durrant spent £3,500 on construction. This money came from successful litigation against a group of miners whose actions damaged the water supply to his mill at Merstham and rendered it useless;

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1806-528: Was found to be very badly corroded during the restoration, projects from the north face. Ifield Water Mill was listed at Grade II by English Heritage on 21 June 1948. It is one of 79 Grade II structures, and 100 listed buildings of all grades , in the Borough of Crawley. The Borough Council still own the building, but it is leased to Crawley Museum Society. Before Crawley Museum was established in Goffs Park in

1849-496: Was opened on 1 July 1861 branching off at Itchingfield Junction south of Horsham. It closed in 1966. The line from Christs Hospital to Guildford opened in 1865 and closed in 1965. The line between Hardham Junction south of Pulborough, and Arundel Junction on the coast line via Arundel was finally opened on 3 August 1863 creating a through route to Portsmouth. Originally, the main LB&;SCR route from London to Portsmouth used

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