Mill House, Ashburton
Mill House was built in 1912 for the manager of the neighbouring Canterbury Flour Mill. It was designed by the England Brothers in the English Domestic Revival style. Currently a cafe, craft shop and craft education centre, Mill House has been associated with Ashford Handicrafts since the late 1970s.
Structural weaknesses were found to be the brick chimneys, and inadequate bracing to the existing timber framed walls. The chimneys have since been replaced with lightweight replicas, and lightweight materials replacing the previous tiled roof cladding.
A Heritage EQUIP upgrade works grant will go towards bracing the interior and exterior walls, and installing sub floor framing under the bracing walls.
Mill House is listed with Heritage New Zealand as a category 2 historic place.