Haddenham Mill

Summary

Haddenham Mill is a brick tower windmill dating to 1803 which retains its internal machinery and which has undergone extensive external restoration between 1992 and 1998.

Reasons for Designation

Haddenham Mill is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: the mill is a carefully restored example of an early C19 tower windmill with the original brick tower containing a near complete complement of original milling machinery. Late C20 replacement elements including the sails, cap and fantail have faithfully replicated the detail of the original components;
* Historic interest: the mill at Haddenham stands on a long-established mill site and represents the highly sophisticated late stage of wind-powered milling prior to the introduction of steam-powered roller milling later in the C19.

History

The windmill at Haddenham, also known as Great Mill, is one of four surviving complete tower mills in Cambridgeshire, and dates to 1803. The mill was built for Daniel Cockle, and was operated by the Cockle family and successive owners until just after the end of the Second World War, after which time it remained unused and unmaintained. The mill sails were blown off in 1969, followed by the collapse of the mill cap and fantail. The remains of the cap were removed in 1981, and a temporary roof structure was erected to protect the surviving fabric and the mill interior. The mill site was eventually purchased by owners intent on restoring the mill, and work began in May 1992. The external brickwork at the top of the tower and the curb it supported were repaired, and then a new cap and a skeleton fantail were fitted in December 1994 by specialist millwrights Thompson of Alford, Lincolnshire. This work was followed by the reinstatement of stocks and sail frames in March 1995. The works completed at this time had restored the mill to a static condition, but the ambition was to return it to full operational capability. Additional funds were raised to complete the sail equipment and to replace irreparable parts of the mill machinery, such as the brake wheel and wallower, and the restoration of the mill was completed in 1998.

The mill was first listed in February 1952, having ceased operation a few years earlier.

Details

Tower windmill of 1803, built for Daniel Cockle, restored to working order 1994-8.

MATERIALS: red and Gault brick tower walling, part rendered.

EXTERIOR: the tapering mill tower is of 4 storeys, with doorways at ground and first floor level, and a single two-light glazing bar casement window to each level. The mill has a domed cap which incorporates a projecting dormer and the cantilevered platform supporting the six-sail fantail. The mill has four double-shuttered sails which run anti-clockwise, and an external iron drive wheel which could be connected to a mobile steam engine to power the mill when there was insufficient wind to operate the sails. The cap structure, fantail support platform and sails are all replacements installed between 1994 and 1998.

INTERIOR: the mill interior has a number of substantial joisted timber floors - the stone floor, bin floor and meal floor- which support the various items of mill machinery and elements of the power transmission systems. The main timber upright shaft linking the mechanisms within the mill cap to the mill machinery and drives passes through the floors.

FIXTURES AND FITTINGS: the mill retains much of its original machinery and power transmission system, but the brake wheel and the wallower are C20 replacements. The mill retains its three sets of underdrift stones, with their associated governer mechanisms, a friction sack hoist, a complete bolter, a vertical smutter and a flour dresser. Principal and secondary gearing is powered from the vertical shaft and thence by various belt drives to individual machines within the mill interior.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

49537

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Stephens, R, Wind and Watermills of Cambridgeshire, (1985)

End of official list entry

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