Muddy Creek Mill

Muddy Creek Mill is a large grist and flour mill in the small community of Tamworth, Cumberland County, Virginia, about a mile from the James River. Begun in the third quarter of the eighteenth century by Nicholas Davies, it reached its present size by 1785 under Richard James and was raised to its current height under a lease agreement of 1792. The building measures roughly thirty-eight by seventy-seven feet, with a sandstone basement and first floor, a brick second floor laid in Flemish bond, and two frame half stories under a slate roof with two tiers of dormers. It is the only known surviving Virginia mill with that dormer arrangement. Inside, a roller-mill system installed around 1910 survives, along with bolting equipment and one stand of millstones. The mill produced flour for local use and for trade on the James River Canal until the 1950s. Nearby are a brick store, a miller's house, a farmhouse and a dairy.