Draper's Windmill, including brick engine house, workshop and cart shed, and lean-to

Summary

A timber-framed tarred weatherboard smock windmill with three pairs of overdrift millstones, constructed in about 1843, probably by John Holman of Canterbury. The mill has been fully restored to working condition and is currently (2025) in use as a museum.

Reasons for Designation

Draper’s Mill, built in around 1843, probably by the millwright John Holman of Canterbury, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a smock mill dating from the mid-C19 that survives particularly well, including the weatherboarding and timber-framing, the machinery, and adjoining ancillary buildings;
* for the rare surviving internal machinery, including the windshaft, brake wheel hub and spokes, wallower, upright shaft, great spur wheel, sack hoist mechanism, parts of the tentering gear system, fantail gearing and shafts, worm wheel, the iron rack and elm curb on which it is positioned, and the three pairs of millstones.

Historic interest:

* as a good representation of the highly-sophisticated late stage of wind-powered milling prior to the introduction of steam-powered roller milling later in the C19;
* as a fine example of a smock mill involving work undertaken by the important C19 millwright, John Holman of Canterbury.

Group value:

* forming part of a legible group of buildings associated to the windmill that include the unlisted mill house, bake house, and villa.

History

Located on the ancient footway between the Norman churches of St John’s in Margate and St Peter’s in Broadstairs, Draper’s Mill was constructed in around 1843, probably by John Holman of Canterbury, to grind grain into flour. By 1851 a mill house, cottage, and bakehouse were added, shortly followed by an engine house for an auxiliary steam engine, and then a villa for the mill owner in the late C19. By 1866 a second smock mill known as ‘Little Draper’s Mill’ was erected on the adjoining land. A third windmill, a brick tower mill called ‘The Pumper’, was built to the north-east for the Margate Water Company in 1874. At the end of the C19 all the land north of this stretch of St Peter’s Footpath was occupied by the windmills and their associated buildings. Both Little Drapers Mill and The Pumper eventually fell out of use and were demolished by the early C20.

Draper’s Mill was worked by wind and steam engine until the early C20 when a gas engine replaced the earlier steam plant. The mill was worked by engine until the late 1930s, with the sweeps and fantail being removed in 1927. The mill passed through various ownerships through the C19 and into the C20, when it was used by a series of flour, corn, animal feed, and coal merchants until it was sold for redevelopment in 1965. The new owner, Henry Gulliver, offered the mill for preservation to any group willing to take on the mill, and subsequently the Draper’s Mill Trust (later renamed the Draper’s Windmill Trust) was established. Through the C20 the mill had fallen into a state of dilapidation and so a series of temporary repairs were immediately undertaken to prevent further deterioration. An agreement was made in 1968 between Kent County Council and the owner for an exchange of land which would allow for the mill to be preserved in situ under the ownership of the Kent Education Committee.

As part of the late-C20 restoration much of the original machinery within the windmill was retained, but some missing components were salvaged from the fire-damaged ruins of the Black Mill in Barham, which was also built by Holman’s of Canterbury, and from Stanford Mill in Ashford. The engine house was reroofed, and former boiler house to the south-east was removed. The mill was brought to a basic working condition by 1972, by which time a pair of sweeps had been installed, the fantail refitted, and the weatherboarding repaired. The second pair of sweeps were fitted in February 1975, and a gas engine added to provide auxiliary power in 1998. Further restoration and maintenance works were carried out in 2019, allowing the mill to remain operational.

Details

A smock windmill with three pairs of overdrift millstones, constructed in about 1843, probably by John Holman of Canterbury. The mill has been fully restored to working condition and is currently (2025) in use as a museum.

MATERIALS: the smock tower is timber-framed and clad in replaced weatherboard which has been painted in coal tar and is positioned atop a brick base which also has coal tar applied to its external elevations. The cant posts and beams of the tower are pine, and the cap is oak-framed. Internally, the mill has timber and iron machinery.

Ancillary buildings include a brick engine house, a brick and flint workshop and separate cart shed, along with timber-framed weatherboarded lean-to on a brick plinth.

PLAN: the main smock tower is octagonal in plan and set over four floors, including, from top to bottom: a dust floor, stone floor, meal floor, and bagging and weighing office and shop. Ancillary buildings adjoin each side of the base of the tower.

EXTERIOR: the mill is accessed by a short flight of brick steps to the west elevation of the loading bay through an original timber plank and batten door with cast iron strap hinges. A pair of replacement doors above timber steps are located adjacent on the south elevation, and a door opening infilled with weatherboard is positioned in the east elevation. The doors and floor are at cart height to facilitate the loading of grain in and flour out of the mill. The fenestration comprises timber-framed multi-pane casement windows to the south and east elevations.

At first floor level is a reefing stage which has a painted timber handrail and is accessed from doors on both the north and south sides of the tower. Both doors are timber stable style with cast iron strap hinges and a timber hood on decorative brackets. The tower has four-over-eight timber sliding sash windows on the first and second floors of the east and west elevations, and one on the ground floor of the south-west elevation. Single casement windows are positioned on the third floor of the north and south elevations. The mill is topped by a rotating wagon roof cap and has four ten-bay double-shuttered patent sweeps, currently with the shutters removed (May 2025) for adjustment and refitting.

The cart shed is located adjacent to the western boundary with the former bakehouse. It has brick side walls, a tarred weatherboard rear (north) wall and a pair of tarred timber doors to the front with cast iron strap hinges. The roof is clad with corrugated metal sheeting.

The workshop is positioned between the brick base of the tower and the cart shed and includes sections of flint construction to its south and west elevations. The rear (north) wall is tarred weatherboard, and the front has three half-glazed timber doors. Its roof has a gentle pitch with original wide timber planks to the front slope and corrugated metal sheeting to the rear. A door in the north-east corner leads through to the mid-C19 engine house which contains a working 1920 Crossley Brothers GE117 gas engine that was brought to the windmill in 1998, previously in use at the Mason Pearson Brothers hairbrush factory in Old Ford, London. The engine, which was fitted on the existing engine beds, has a 6ft 6-inch flywheel and is connected by a belt drive system that allows it to turn the millstones without wind. The engine house is constructed of yellow brick with a pair of timber doors to the west elevation and a casement window to the north.

INTERIOR: the ground floor areas around the mill formerly housed the loading bay, weighing office, and shop, but are now in use as the museum and display space. The interior has an exposed timber frame throughout and incorporates some reused timbers. A blocked doorway to the east previously lead to the now demolished boiler house. A door to the north leads through to the octagonal open plan base of the tower which has exposed timber-framing of the tower above and a steep flight of timber steps up positioned within the western side of the room. Three chutes drop from the ceiling for graded flour from the late-C20 flour dressing machine on the floor above.

The first floor contains the meal floor where the underside of the millstones are visible through openings within the ceiling. Timber chutes carry the ground grain to the perimeter of the room for sacking. Tentering gears and centrifugal governors hang from the ceiling.

The second floor, known as the stone floor, has two pairs of Derbyshire Peak stones for grinding animal food and one pair of French Burr stones for flour, all contained within octagonal vats. Octagonal iron quants and cast-iron stone nuts with timber teeth run between each pair of stones and the cast iron great spur wheel. A square forged-iron upright shaft with chamfered edges rises from the great spur wheel through the third-floor ceiling, connecting to the cast iron wallower wheel located on the fourth floor, often referred to as the dust floor.

The windmill has a cast iron windshaft and a brake wheel which has a cast iron hub but incorporates the timber elements of an older brake wheel, showing sawn off remains of timber spokes. It is likely that the brake wheel pre-dates the mill, plausibly being salvaged from Westbrook Mill nearby which was offered for sale for demolition in 1842. Below the wallower is a timber tire which can engage the sack hoist for winching grain from the ground floor. The frame of the cap has embedded metal wheels that allow it to rotate with the wind on a circular metal curb around the top of the smock tower.

It is understood that original machinery within the mill includes the windshaft, brake wheel hub and spokes, wallower, upright shaft, great spur wheel, sack hoist mechanism, parts of the tentering gear system, fantail gearing and shafts, worm wheel, the iron rack and elm curb on which it is positioned, and the three pairs of millstones.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

356673

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
West, J, The Windmills of Kent, (1979)
Wailes, R, Russell, J, Windmills in Kent in Transactions of the Newcomen Society, Vol. 29:1, (1953), 221-239
Coles Finch, W, Watermills and Windmills: A historical survey of their rise, decline, and fall as portrayed by those of Kent, (1976), 242-243
Davis, J, A short history of the windmills of Margate in Kent Archaeological Society newsletter, Vol. 113, (2020), 22-24

Websites
Draper's Windmill, accessed 03/09/2025 from www.draperswindmill.org.uk
Draper's Mill, Margate, accessed 03/09/2025 from https://new.millsarchive.org/mills/index/?which=2792
Historical introduction to mills and milling, accessed 03/09/2025 from https://new.millsarchive.org/2003/01/01/historical-introduction-to-mills-and-milling/4/
Holman Bros, millwrights of Canterbury, accessed 03/09/2025 from https://new.millsarchive.org/2022/08/15/holman-brosmillwrights-of-canterbury/

Other
OS maps from various periods.
Kent County Council (2025), Drapers’ Windmill St Peter’s Path Margate: Assessment of Significance.
Cates, M (unfinished 2025), Draper’s Mill & Town Mill – A Timeline of Mills and Millers.
Kentish Gazette (1842), Westbrook Mill near Margate to be sold by auction.
Kentish Independent (1846), Dover Winter Sessions.
Kentish Gazette (1861), Drapers Mill.

End of official list entry

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