Skidby Mill and attached mill buildings

Skidby Mill and attached mill buildings, on the west side of Beverley Road (A164)

A corn windmill of tower type, built in 1821 by Robert Garton, millwright, for William Watson. The mill was raised in the late 1870s. The structure is a brick tower, tarred, with a timber-framed cap, sails and fantail painted white.

The mill has a circular plan with a battered tower and vertical upper section, typical of East Yorkshire tower mills. It rises through six storeys plus cap. The bottom storey contains one Yorkshire sliding multi-paned window, two boarded doors and an engine drive pulley, alongside adjoining buildings. The second storey has one multi-paned pivoted window and one internal door to the warehouse. The third storey has three pivoting windows. A slatted stage at second floor level carries a handrail on posts with cross-bracing. The fourth, fifth and sixth storeys each have two pivoting windows. The mill is topped with a circular ogee cup bearing a ball finial, and an eight-bladed fantail carried on a high fanstage behind it, with fan gearing and lever-type striking gear. Four double-shuttered patent sails with complete shutters and striking gear are mounted on an iron cross.

The interior is fully fitted with working mill machinery. The bottom storey contains an engine drive shaft with bevel gears driving a vertical iron shaft, elevator boot, hopper and trunking. The second storey houses wood and iron tentering gear for three pairs of millstones, a governor, meal spouts, a vertical iron shaft passing through with bevel gear and pulley, and elevator trunking. The third storey contains three pairs of complete millstones with tuns, hoppers, horses, shoes with screens, quants and mortise-iron stone nuts. A cast-iron upright shaft carries an iron great spurwheel and belt drive to the governor shaft. A vertical shaft carries a fourth mortise-iron nut engaging the great spur, with elevator trunking. The fourth and fifth storeys have an iron upright shaft passing through and an elevator head. The sixth storey contains an iron upright shaft carrying a cast-iron wallower with wooden facing. The cap is fitted with a cast-iron windshaft carrying a wood-rimmed, iron cogged and spoked brakewheel, wooden brake and lever, fantail gears, and striking gear for the sails.

Attached to the mill are brick buildings of two storeys with pantile roofs. The northern building, to the west of the mill, has a doorway to the left and two three-light windows with segment heads on the ground floor, above which are four four-light windows. The west gable wall has a two-light casement to each floor, both with segment heads. The south front contains two four-light windows with segment heads and above them a three-light and two four-light windows.

To the south-east is a further two-storey range with a single four-light window to each floor of the west gable front. The south front has four four-light windows to each floor, those below with segment heads. Beyond this is a slightly lower two-storey range with three irregularly spaced three-light windows and above them three four-light windows. The east gable wall has a four-light casement and a three-light window above, both with segment heads. The north front contains two three-light casements, two plank doors and a small casement, all with segment heads, above which is a small casement and a pair of shuttered loft doors.

To the west is a projecting range. The east gable wall has a pair of cart doors, and the north front a single doorway.