More information : The ruins of a stone building situated at SE 1709 8586 close to the northern edge of Jervaulx Park are traditionally said to be those of the Jervaulx Abbey watermill (1b, 1c), known from documentary evidence to have stood adjacent to the abbey's inner court (1d).
The ruins were planned as part of the RCHME archaeological survey of Jervaulx Abbey. See the report (1a) and plans in the NMR for full details (feature BC3), although a summary of the main findings is given below.
Although no architectural recording was carried out, a superficial examination of the standing fabric suggests that what little survives is too fragmentary and undiagnostic to permit a firm identification of the building's original function. Nevertheless, the survey did identify leats (SE 18 NE 168 and 171) leading to and from the building which at least make it plausible as the site of a mill. However, the survey also showed that the area surrounding the ruins has been heavily landscaped - probably when formal gardens (SE 18 NE 176) were laid out within the former abbey precinct after the Dissolution - and it is possible that the ruins are a late 16th-century romantic folly instead.
The ruins form part of SAM North Yorkshire 7 (1e). They presently lie within private gardens associated with Jervaulx Hall. (1) |