Cobland Mill was built sometime in the early 19th century. It had a sixteen foot diameter overshot water wheel that was used for grinding grain. In the late 19th century the mill was abandoned after which it was used for sheep shearing when it then became known as ‘Lake Barn’. The name ‘Eglarooze’ means ‘chapel on the promontory’ and it refers to a chapel dedicated to St. Winnows that was sited somewhere between Cobland Mill and ‘Lower Eglarooze’ and ‘Higher Eglarooze’ (now called St. Winnows) immediately to the north. The chapel was owned by the priors of St. Germans but fell into disuse after the abolition of the monasteries by Henry VIII in 1539. Small pieces of the chapel have been found at Cobland Mill. The fields surrounding the mill are now owned by the Duchy of Cornwall but from the early 18th century they were part of the Port Eliot Estate. Cobland Mill was bought as an abandoned ruin from the Port Eliot Estate in the year 2000 and then converted into residential use. It is Grade II listed.

We were asked to repair some of the old walls, and build some new ones around the property. The repairs were mainly carried out to the boundary wall alongside the road. The stone consisted of natural rustic slate, including the coping, and a traditional natural lime mortar was used for building it all back again.

The original water wheel was removed during the course of the works when the mill was converted into residential use and is awaiting restoration. It will be used for another project.

The new walls that we were asked to build were at the rear of the property. These were also built using a natural rustic slate and a traditional lime mortar. We first started building the walls that went either side of a flight of brick steps.

At the top of the steps we built two piers with a slate cap and placed a couple of large planters which were hand carved out of limestone.

Taking the wall further around, we set a recess into the wall to store logs.

An oak lintel was used to span the opening, the back was rendered in lime and a sill of natural slate was put in.

The wall then continued on around again.

This new wall was built to act as a retaining wall by retaining the bank behind it. Eventually we finished off the wall further again and gradually tapered it down until the ground levels behind were much lower.

The apex style coping we constructed on top had a 50mm overhang from the face of the wall. Natural rustic slate was used for all the coping details. All the stone for this job was sourced from Trecarne quarry on Bodmin Moor.