Ifield Water Mill

Ifield Water Mill
The mill from the northeast
Location	Hyde Drive, Ifield West, Crawley, West Sussex RH11 0PL, United Kingdom
Coordinates	51°06′49″N 0°13′21″W / 51.1136°N 0.2225°W / 51.1136; -0.2225Coordinates: 51°06′49″N 0°13′21″W / 51.1136°N 0.2225°W / 51.1136; -0.2225
Built	1817 (present building)
Built for	Thomas Durrant
Architectural style(s)	Weatherboarded Vernacular
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name: Ifield Water Mill
Designated	21 June 1948
Reference no.	1207630
Location of Ifield Water Mill in Crawley

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 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 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 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 the mill and its associated buildings. They were also tenants of the Bewbush furnace.