Haddenham Mill

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.