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New Bradwell Windmill
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New Bradwell Mill was erected circa. 1805. by Mr Samual Holman. Valuation at the time suggests the cost at approximately £500. He worked the mill until his death in 1825, inherited by his wife and son. By 1846, the mill was owned by Elizabeth Curtis and during this time operated by William Carr of Carr's Mill, Haversham. It was bought in 1857 by Robert Adams of Bradwell Abbey and his son, Robert ran the business until 1871. It has a stone tower, built from stone quarried locally, the footings of which were reinforced by a mound which acted as an elevated walkway to allow the miller to attend to the sails. Originally the mill had two types of sails, one pair of 52 ft. common sails and one pair of 52ft. spring sails. The renovated mill has four spring sails. Inside, the mill has three floors above ground level, the stone floor, the bin floor and the dust floor. The stone floor has two sets of millstones, one pair made from Derbyshire peak or grey stone were used to grind animal feed. The other pair are French burrs, a composite stone of very hard quartzite from the Paris region, for grinding finer flour for human consumption. An unusual feature of New Bradwell Mill is the fireplace. Only one other mill in Britain is known to have taken this risk as flour dust is very explosive. The mill finally ceased working in 1876 when the Railway Company bought adjacent land for the development of the Wolverton to Newport Pagnell line.
New Bradwell Windmill is now a Grade II listed building. Visit The Society for the Preservation of Old Mills at http://www.spoom.org
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BRADWELL WINDMILL |
