Wiley's Grist & Saw Mill Ruins
Chester Co. | Pennsylvania | USA
Watersource: Leech Run
Wiley's Grist & Saw Mill Ruins
From the town of Oxford, go north on Scroggy Rd. about 2 miles to the intersection with Street Rd. Turn left (west) on Street Rd. and go about 0.2 mile to the mill ruins on your left at Leech Run
The old ruin is approximately 25'X 60'. Built to a height of 3.5 stories of gray & buff sandstone.
The magnificent shell of the former mill is located on the east bank of Leech Run, a tributary of Octoraro Creek.
The mill is unusual in that neither the front or the rear walls have any windows. The rear has a door in the middle of the basement/lower story partly filled in from hillside debris sluffing down.
Wiley's MillTaken March of 2018
The wheel pit at the rear of the mill. The headrace must have come from upstream quite a ways, then followed the road above the mill to empty out above the overshot wheel.
The area to the left of the photo should be where the headrace approached the forebay & wheel pit. In 1810, the mill was known as Strong's Grist Mill.
The inside of the rear portion of the mill. The rear wall is to the right with the doorway. The use of the large diameter pipe is a mystery. In 1860, the mill went by the name of A. Hoopes Grist Mill & in 1883, it was owned by Joseph Wiley.
This may have been some sort of two story fireplace, the upper one in the mill office for heating the office.
Also an unusual feature is the offset alignment of the front doors from center. The wall would have enabled wagons to back up to the mill, off the roadway, to load and unload.