Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II listed building. Main construction periods 1800 to 2004 A tower mill used in the processing of cereals. A mill is seen to have existed on the site by at least 1759, according to parish accounts. The structure which exists today was built in the late 18th to early 19th century, from evidence of the carpentry and machinery. The mill is built of cement rendered brick with a 20th century flat roof. The mill ceased work at the end of the 19th century after a storm damaged two of the sweeps, and in 1942, the cap and it's contents were also destroyed by storm

Monument Types

• MILL (Post Medieval to Modern - 1800 AD to 2004 AD)

Full description

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A tower mill used in the processing of cereals. A mill is seen to have existed on the site by at least 1759, according to parish accounts. The structure which exists today was built in the late 18th to early 19th century, from evidence of the carpentry and machinery. The mill is built of cement rendered brick with a 20th century flat roof. The mill ceased work at the end of the 19th century after a storm damaged two of the sweeps, and in 1942, the cap and it's contents were also destroyed by storm. (1)

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TQ 56 43 BIDBOROUGH PENSHURST ROAD (south side)
11/20 Four Winds Windmill
GV II
Windmill, currently used for storage. A windmill is shown on the site in 1769 and documentation in the parish accounts shows that a mill was standing here by at least 1759. The existing structure may be an early to mid C19 replacement, possibly dating from 1858. Most of the internal carpentry and some of the machinery appears to be late C19. Cement-rendered brick with a C20 flat roof, the cowl and sweeps missing.
PLAN: Sited on a high ridge, slightly set back from the Penshurst Road. A 4- storey, tapering, cylindrical structure with a late C19/early C20 porch in the east and a doorway on the west. Much of the machinery is intact on the first or meal floor.
EXTERIOR: The first floor has a loading door on the north side and a 12-pane C19 sash window on the south side. The other storeys have windows, mostly with original embrasures, with C20 glazing. Cast iron pulley to right of first floor sash window.
INTERIOR: Wooden floors and wooden steps to all floors and posts to ground floor. Although no machinery remains on the stone, bin or dust floors except for the upright drive shaft which passes through all these floors, the meal floor (first floor) retains the great spur wheel of cast iron with wooden cogs and various gearing wheels. The spur wheel incorporates a bevelled wooden cogged ring underneath where the power of a steam engine was applied when wind was insufficient to turn the sails. A horizontal shaft with a bevel pinion gear engages the bevelled cogs and carries two iron pulleys, one inside and one outside the mill tower. The outside pulley would have been coupled to the steam engine and the inner one drove a milling or crushing machine. Attached to the first floor wall are two wooden machines with skeleton cylinders. The smaller machine is a wheat cleaner, the larger machine a flour dresser. These machines are a quite rare survival as their use was banned during the First World War and many were ripped out. The second floor retains some tentering gear and centrifugal governors. The sack hoist doors survive throughout, on the meal floor a wooden shield prevented them from swinging against the moving machinery.
HISTORY: The mill ceased to work at the end of the C19, following storm damage to two of the sweeps. In 1942 the cap and its contents were destroyed during a storm. A late C19 photograph of the mill, with its sweeps and cap intact, is reproduced in The Windmills of Kent. C19 tower mill, a less usual type in Kent, the tower surviving to full height, retaining internal floors, steps and some machinery.
[West, Jenny, The Windmills of Kent (f.p. 1973, 1979 edn.), pp.27-28.]
Listing NGR: TQ5613543444 (2)

Recorded by NRIM, photographed. (3)

Historic England archive material: BF002459 FOUR WINDS WINDMILL, BIDBOROUGH File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued. Copyright, date, and quantity information for this record may be incomplete or inaccurate.

<1> Wikipedia, 2019, List of windmills in Kent (Website). SKE52140.

<2> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<3> National Record of Industrial Monuments (NRIM): Index Cards (Index). SKE53912.

Sources and further reading