Section 2 of 4
The mill block, six bays wide
The mill block did not go up in one campaign. It accumulated bay by bay as the trade changed — saw, then grist, then textile — and its proportions are a machinery dimension rather than an architectural preference: each bay marks a shaft position on the line drive inside. The watercourse that fed all of it still runs under the centre of town.
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The mill block, six bays wide
The proportions of a New England mill are set by the machinery and the daylight it needed, not by taste.
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What the water actually powered
Linen, wool and then smaller trades — the sequence is documented in town records.
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The channel still runs. What changed is what it runs through.
The watercourse survives beneath a centre now built for visitors.
