# The Old Mill, Surrey

Source: https://www.riverbee.uk/projects/the-old-mill

Grade II listed mill sympathetically converted to six residential flats, retaining existing beams and features.

- Location: Godalming, Surrey
- Property: Grade II listed mill
- The work: Listed building conversion to six flats
- Listing: Grade II
- Homes: Six flats, 42 m² to 114.5 m²
- Services: Listed buildings, Developers & investors, Period properties

## The building

Hatch Mill stands over the mill stream in Godalming: a brick base with a tall, black weatherboarded mill above it and a white weatherboarded gable to the north. It is Grade II listed, and photographs from the 1920s and 1950s show it working as a mill.

The brief was to turn it into homes without losing what makes it a mill: the timber frame, the roof structure, the weatherboarding and its place on the water.

## Surveying before designing

We started with measured drawings of the mill as it stood, existing elevations and sections, so every proposal could be tested against the real building. Listed building work depends on understanding what is there before deciding what can change.

## Six flats inside a listed mill

The proposed plans fit six flats across three floors around a common stair, with their own entrances and a communal garden. They range from a 42 m² ground-floor flat to a 114.5 m² flat on the top floor; one flat runs over two floors with its own private stair.

The layouts work around the mill rather than through it. The original beams, posts and roof timbers stay exposed in the living spaces and bedrooms, so each flat keeps a piece of the mill’s structure.

## The result

Six homes inside a Grade II listed mill: the timber frame, roof structure and weatherboarding are kept, so the building’s character survives inside and out.

## Photographs

- Dining area and lounge under the mill’s original timber roof structure, lit by roof lights
- The white weatherboarded gable and the brick range of the converted mill
- Water rushing through the old wheel race below the mill
- The brick sluice channel under the mill, with its iron railings
- The Old Mill from the river: a brick building with a black weatherboarded section over the water
- The black and white weatherboarded mill building beside the stream
- The mill’s weatherboarded exterior and brick base, with steps up the side
- Living room with a green sofa and a dining table by the windows
- Bedroom with a black timber post and beam retained from the mill
- A flat’s kitchen in dark grey with oak worktops, beside an original black timber post
- A compact dark grey kitchen with built-in oven and microwave
- Bedroom with an iron bedstead, oak wardrobe and a retained timber post
- A shower room with a walk-in shower and a window over the mill

## Contact

- Business: River Bee Design, Stockbridge, Hampshire, SO20 6DJ
- Principal Designer: Marcella Bingley
- Phone: +44 (0) 7818 038226
- Email: marcella@riverbee.uk
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcella-bingley-river-bee-design
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/river_bee_design/
- Website: https://www.riverbee.uk/