IT was built with timbers from a frigate captured when Great Britain and the United States were last at war.

Now Wickham's Chesapeake Mill is on the market.

Hampshire County Council, which has owned it since 1998, is looking for a buyer to redevelop the Georgian mill sympathetically, possibly for commercial use - "to breathe new life" into the listed building.

The council carried out "essential repairs" in the hope of finding a community purpose for the mill, but it has proved impossible to raise the necessary funding.

A marketing and planning brief has been agreed to guide future users to ensure that the mill's architectural and historic features are safeguarded.

Its beams came from the USS Chesapeake, a frigate captured by the Royal Navy off Boston in 1813, midway through the three-year conflict in which the British burned the White House.

The timbers still bear the signs of damage caused by HMS Shannon's cannonfire during fierce fighting in which 93 sailors were killed and 156 wounded.

The Chesapeake, which was built in 1799, using slave labour, was sold by the Royal Navy in 1819 and broken up.

The following year, builder, John Prior, bought some of her timbers for £3,450 for the water mill.

In fact, its dimensions reflect those of the ship, which was carefully dismantled so that every last inch of the long timbers could be used.

The county is offering the mill on leasehold, hoping to achieve "a sympathetic refurbishment and provide an element of public access" and to ensure that the most important elements of the milling machinery will be retained.

The site is mentioned in the Domesday Book and Chesapeake is acknowledged as one of the oldest water mills in the country.

HCC leader, Ken Thornber, said: "We recognise the importance of the property, not only locally, but nationally and internationally, particularly in the USA.

"We hope that it will be possible to harness the interest and enthusiasm of local people through consultation and find a new use which would reflect the intrinsic interest of the water mill and its historic value and safeguard it."