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Name: | WINDMILL, Mill Lane |
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HER No.: | 928 |
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Type of Record: | Former Building |
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Summary
A tower mill, built in 1860. Brick tower with pointed domed cap, four sails and tail fan. The mill was said to be the tallest in the county, and was listed at Grade II in 1952. By 1931 the mill had ceased to be pwered by wind, but was still used as part of a milling business until the 1960s. Demolished in 1966.
Full Description
<1> Ministry of Housing and Local Government, 1962, Rural District of Biggleswade: Provisional List of Buildings of Architectural or Historic Interest, Ref 850/11a, November 1948 (Unpublished document). SBD10537.
1860 six storeys, circular brick tower mill with pointed domed cap having ball finial and gallery. Four common sails, tail fan missing. Biggleswade mill was the talest in the county (70ft), it ceased working by wind in 1931, but the building is still used as part of a milling business. A conspicuous landmark - particuarly from the railway.
<2> Bedfordshire Historical Record Society, Bedfordshire Historical Record Society, Vol 14, 1931, p. 9 (Serial). SBD10681.
[1860] This tower-mill was built by Ezra Garner in this year. It is the largest and most up-to-date windmill in the county, and stands within the town of Biggleswade, on the W side of the road leading to Langford, set back about 100 yards from that highway. It is in close vicinity to the steam flour-mill and a bare quarter of a mile from the water-mill, all now under the same ownership. It stands fully 70 feet in height to its ball terminal, the overall at base being 23 feet 6ins., and built of 21-inch brickwork, tapering at the top to 18 inches. There are seven floors in all, and it runs three pairs of stones on the third floor above the ground floor. The sails were replaced in 1922; they have a span of about 70 feet overall, and 9 feet width; the double shutters are 4ft 6ins and 2ft 6ins respectively, by 12 ins wide, and are 216 in all. They are worked to the wind by a 12-foot automatic sail fan. The mill has a woden gallery platform around the base of the domed cap. The machinery is practially all of modern type. The vertical shaft is of 14-inch chamfered timbering. The brake-wheel is 9 feet across; it is an iron casting, with applied wood rim and cogs. On the grist-dresser is inscribed that "G. Wilson came here September 2nd 1867"; he was, I understand, the under-miller there for many years. The tower is of brick, and tarred for its better preservation; the cradle and puley ropes and tackle which are used for the latter purpose are still in evidence in the mill. This property was sold by William and Ezra Garner, sons of the builder, to the present owner, Henry Franklin. This mill is working frequently as trade demands.
<3> Bedfordshire Magazine, Vol 1, pp. 89, 153-154 (Serial). SBD10543.
Biggleswade mill in the county. 70 feet to the top of the tower - and one of the last tower mills in the county to work. It was built in 1860 and ceased grinding seventy-one years later in 1931, but it is still in good repair and may be seen from the railway near Biggleswade station as our illustration shows (p154 photo). It was fitted with an automatic fan to turn the cap and bring the sails into the wind. The sail had double shutters i.e. two rows 1 on each side of the 'whip' running down into the middle. They were of the 'patent' variety invented by William Cubitt early last century and could be adjusted according to the strength of the prevailing wind without the mill having to be stopped; a great advantage after both the earlier speing sails invented by Andrew Meikle and the primitive cloth ones.
<4> Bedfordshire Archaeological Council, 1973, Bedfordshire Archaeological Journal, Volume 8, Vol. 8, 1973, pp. 136-137 (Article in serial). SBD14118.
Bedfordshire's fourteen tower mills have received only limited publication, so the present note seeks to record the structure and some of the machinery of the Biggleswade tower mill, which was demolished in 1966. the note is based mainly on photographs in the archives of Bedford Museum.
This mill, built in 1860 by Ezra Garner and still 'working frequently as trade demands' in 1931, stood close to the River Ivel half a mile south of Biggleswade church, at grid reference TL 187 441. The largest windmill in the county, it was 70ft (21m) tall to the finial and 23ft 6in (7.2m) in diameter at the base, where the brick-work was 21in (53.3cm) thick. Both the tower and walling tapered to the top, where the wall-thickness was 18in (45.7cm). The tower was laid in something approaching English bond and was tarred as a weather protection. There were seven floots of which the third was the stone-floor. On one side of the mill was a ground-floor doorway (pl 7c) with a very shallow segmental head. Elsewhere, probably opposite that just mentioned, was a further ground-floor foorway, whose brick opening was continued upwards to surround a first-floor doorway with a raisable platform at its foot. This second opening also had a brick segmental arch-head, as did the (at least) two large windows on the third floor; the size of these is due to their lighting the main working-floor (the stone-floor). All other floors were lighted by much smaller windows with semi-circular arch-heads. The large third-floor windows were of fairly heavy timber with a central mullion and transoms; apparently one panel of each window was a side-hung casement. The other windows had iron glazing-bars. Perhaps it is not without significance that it was the main working-floor windows which followed a distinctly sub-medieval tradition, whilst the others had been made a little more 'pretty' and a little less utilitarian. Jambs and heads to all openings were of specially moulded bricks with one arris quarter-rounded. To prevent lines of weakness developing (and causing the curb to become distorted) the smaller windows were arranged in a spiral.
The cap was of ogee form constructed on a framework of shaped cap-ribs, alternate members reaching the top of a central king-post; the intermediate ribs rose only to short horizontal members which were tenoned into the edges of the principal ribs near their tops and for which the term 'stub purlins' is here suggested. There was a further, continuous and circular, purlin about half-way up the cap. The king-post was a heavy octagonal timber resting centrally on a tie-beam which crossed the mill probably at abou thte level of the lower purlin. The top of the king-post was supported by the principal ribs but was otherwise unbraced.
The rib-structure was covered with short horizontal boards. The spike of the cap was topped by an acorn-shaped finial, and around the cap's base, masking the curb from rain, was a fairly deep skirt or petticoat of vertical boards and with a serrated bottom.
One of the photographs (pl 8a) shows part of the internal arrangement here. The curb was of iron and the cap moved on small iron trolley-wheels. Apparently wheel and axle were of one casting and the bearings sloted over the axles without completely encircling them; these bearings were bolted to the soffits of the cap-frame timbers. To keep the cap centred the cap-frame was provided with truck-wheels which ran against an iron curb with a keep-flange, to prevent the cap lifting off the curb in the event of the mill's being tail-winded. The truck wheels were fixed to stout wooden blocks on the cap-frame.
Externally, at the level of the cap skirt, was a timber gallery for the maintenance of the sails and fan. The gallery was constructed on short straight horizontal members radiating from the cap-frame, and the inner ends of three of these supports are visible in the bottom right of pl 8a. On top of these was a plank floor. The top rail of the gallery was supported by slightly raked up-rights which were cross-strutted.
The fan-tail structure was already in a bad state by the time of the earlier of the two photographs (pl 7b), but it is known that the fan itself was 12ft in diameter. A fan-stage projected on fairly massive timbers from the gallery and was approached through a 'storm door' in the cap, which had a small porch at this point. The fan-tail itself was well braced for strength. Details of the transmission of drive from the fan to the curb are not discernible but it seems that the track was on the top, not the sides, of the curb.
The sails seen in pl 7b were replacements of 1922, and had a span of about 70ft (21m) and a width of 9ft (2.7m) each; they were of Cubbitt's patent type, invented in 1807. The shutters of each sail were controlled by a sail-rod connected to a fork-iron which in turn was coupled to a triangle at the hub of each sail. Each triangle was connected by a bridle-iron to the central spider (visible in pl 7b) which itself was controlled by the striking rod which passed centrally down the windshaft. The Biggleswade sails had a total of 216 double-shutters of 4ft 6in (1.4m) or 2ft 6in (0.8m) length by 11ft (30.5cm) width. The sails moved in an anti-clockwise direction. Movement was conveyed inside the mill by the windshaft, which passed through an opening in the cap and to which was fixed the brake-wheel. The windshaft had an estimated diameter of about 10 in (25cm), and seems to have been of iron. At the point where the brake-wheel was attached to the windshaft a squared timber was provided to give a suitable fitting - with the aid of wedges - for the central box of the wheel. The box nad the eight spokes were of iron in one piece, but the rim was of timber, as were the cogs, which were morised into the rim of the wheel. The diameter of the brake wheel was 9ft (2.7m). The brake itself consisted of a curved iron band embracing the outer rim of the wheel and anchored at one end to one of the sheer-trees of the cap-frame. When the iron brake-band was pulled against the wheel-rim - by a series of cords (or chains) and levers of which no details are visible - the wheel would have been stopped by friction. Brakes of this iron-band form are less common than those made up of stout curved pieces of wood, as at the Stevington post mill.
When the photograph (pl 8a) was taken the wallower had already been removed. The pintle of the main-shaft, on which the wallower would have been fixed, seems to have been housed in a metal casing just to one side of the sprattle-beam, rather than in the soffit of the sprattle-beam itself. It is known that the main-shaft was a 14in (35.6cm) chamfered timber and that the stone floor of the mill had three sets of stones. There was a grist-dresser in the mill, inscribed 'G. Wilson came here September 2nd 1867'.
<5> English Heritage, National Monuments Record Building Files, BF001842 (Unpublished document). SBD10795.
List of items held by the NMRz
<6> Bedfordshire County Council, 1970 - 2000s, HER Photograph Archive, PU165/1966 (Photograph). SBD10506.
Black & white images of exterior of mill and internal machinery prioer to demolition.
<7> National Monuments Record, NMR Photographs, AA78/601 (Photograph). SBD10708.
Black and white image of exterior of mill, 1933
<8> Bedfordshire County Council, 1970 - 2000s, HER Photograph Archive, No date/ref (Photograph). SBD10506.
Black & white image of exterior of mill
<9> Bedfordshire County Council, 1970 - 2000s, HER Photograph Archive, PU107/1966 (Photograph). SBD10506.
Black & white image of mill & ancillary buildings
<10> Bedfordshire County Council, Planning Dept File, 1966 (Unpublished document). SBD11426.
Correspondence re proposed demolition of the mill.
<11> Biggleswade History Society, 2009, Biggleswade Heritage Project Report (Bibliographic reference). SBD11650.
The Windmill was nowhere near Mill Lane. The site is now occupied by 67 Osprey Road. There is a Heritage Plaque (2003) affixed to No 51: "Near to this spot stood the tallest and finest windmill in Bedfordshire from 1859 to 1967, demolished in one day. It was 70 feet high and had five floors, with a gallery around the cap. The three millstones could grind three tons of grain per hour.
<12> Biggleswade History Society, 1986, Old Biggleswade: A Collection of Photographs, p. 47, No. 76 (Bibliographic reference). SBD13721.
An autumn scene, possibly in the 1920's with the tall and elegant Tower Mill - 70 feet high, built in 1860 and demolished in one day during 1967.
<13> Biggleswade History Society, 1992, Old Biggleswade: A Collection of Photographs, Volume 4, p.46, No. 86 (Bibliographic reference). SBD13725.
Built in 1860 -70 feet high - tallest in Bedfordshire - was still intact in September 1950, when this p[icture was taken. …. Soon afterwards , the sails were taken down and it was demolished in a single day in 1970.
(Photo: Leslie Taylor).
Protected Status: None recorded
Monument Type(s):
- WINDMILL (Victorian to Mid 20th Century - 1860 AD to 1966 AD)
Associated Finds: None recorded
Associated Events: None recorded
Sources and Further Reading
[1] | SBD10537 - Unpublished document: Ministry of Housing and Local Government. 1962. Rural District of Biggleswade: Provisional List of Buildings of Architectural or Historic Interest. Ref 850/11a, November 1948. |
[2] | SBD10681 - Serial: Bedfordshire Historical Record Society. Bedfordshire Historical Record Society. Vol 14, 1931, p. 9. |
[3] | SBD10543 - Serial: Bedfordshire Magazine. Vol 1, pp. 89, 153-154. |
[4] | SBD14118 - Article in serial: Bedfordshire Archaeological Council. 1973. Bedfordshire Archaeological Journal, Volume 8. Vol. 8, 1973, pp. 136-137. |
[5] | SBD10795 - Unpublished document: English Heritage. National Monuments Record Building Files. BF001842. |
[6] | SBD10506 - Photograph: Bedfordshire County Council. 1970 - 2000s. HER Photograph Archive. PU165/1966. |
[7] | SBD10708 - Photograph: National Monuments Record. NMR Photographs. AA78/601. |
[8] | SBD10506 - Photograph: Bedfordshire County Council. 1970 - 2000s. HER Photograph Archive. No date/ref. |
[9] | SBD10506 - Photograph: Bedfordshire County Council. 1970 - 2000s. HER Photograph Archive. PU107/1966. |
[10] | SBD11426 - Unpublished document: Bedfordshire County Council. Planning Dept File. 1966. |
[11] | SBD11650 - Bibliographic reference: Biggleswade History Society. 2009. Biggleswade Heritage Project Report. |
[12] | SBD13721 - Bibliographic reference: Biggleswade History Society. 1986. Old Biggleswade: A Collection of Photographs. p. 47, No. 76. |
[13] | SBD13725 - Bibliographic reference: Biggleswade History Society. 1992. Old Biggleswade: A Collection of Photographs, Volume 4. p.46, No. 86. |
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