Windmill At Bloxham Grove Farm

Windmill of 1865 at Bloxham Grove Farm, principally wood with minor 20th-century restoration.

The post mill stands about 200 metres south-west of the farm complex at Bloxham Grove, on the highest ground for miles around. It is outwardly conventional in form: four sails covered by cloth rolled down the sail frames; a weather-boarded, gable-roofed, wooden 'buck' or body containing the machinery; and with its main post supported by iron-strapped cross-trees set upon stone- and concrete-capped tapering brick piers. To the rear of the body is a pair of doors with iron strap handles.

The machinery comprises one pair of 30-inch stones, driven directly from above via a wooden gear wheel with 48 cogs. A governor is suspended beneath the stones, which are fed from a detachable hopper.

The mill was designed and constructed in 1865 as a one-third scale post mill 'as a memorial to all windmills' by Henry Warriner (1819–1902), an engineer and manager of Bloxham Grove Farm. At the time, Warriner was chief engineer of Messrs Mandesley Sons and Field of Lambeth. He was the nephew of George Warriner II, who had been an improving farmer and manager of the estate. The mill was said to have been made by John Lampitt and Co. of Banbury, though accounts differ as to whether this firm was responsible for the mill itself or its machinery. According to Warriner's nephew, interviewed in 1957, the mill was used as a hobby during holidays: 'he spent many a windy day in it when on holiday. It was of course a hobby and not big enough for commercial work'.

The Warriner family had purchased and united the Old (204 acres) and New (147 acres) farms at Bloxham Grove around 1797 through George Warriner I, whose purchase coincided with the enclosure of the parish's open fields in 1794 and 1802, which created the modern agricultural landscape. George Warriner II demonstrated progressive farming methods, noted by agricultural writer Arthur Young when he reported on Oxfordshire agriculture in 1809 (published in 1813). His improvements included the purchase of threshing and winnowing machines mentioned in an inventory of 1813, the rebuilding of some farm buildings in 1826, and subsequently the installation of a steam engine in the barn to drive milling machinery. Henry Warriner, an engineer with interests in both marine and railway engineering, was clearly a man who enjoyed experimenting with motive power. In 1841 he built and launched 'The Firefly', an experimental steam launch. The Warriners farmed Bloxham Grove until the late 19th century and owned the farm until 1916. The mill survives in good condition with its machinery intact.