Stembridge Mill

Stembridge Mill is a windmill dating to 1822, situated in East Field, High Ham. Constructed from roughly coursed local lias stone, the building features a thatched roof with a plain gable, extending over a weatherboarded superstructure, and wooden sail frames. It has a circular plan. Access is provided by a boarded door set within a heavy frame, reached by four steps on the north side, with further lower and smaller doors on the east and south faces respectively. Small casement windows are present on the east side. A former bakery building stands to the rear.

Inside, the mill is arranged over four floors. An incomplete gear system remains, which originally drove two pairs of stones. There is a fireplace on the lowest floor, with its flue incorporated into the wall, leading to an outlet just below the cap. The mill was powered by wind until 1897 when steam power was introduced; the original drive shaft and gears are still in place. The French stones feature balance weight pockets in the plaster backs, a design patented by Clark and Dunham in 1859. A wire machine for dressing flour is located on the meal floor, below the stone floor.

The mill is the only surviving windmill in Somerset and the only thatched mill remaining in England. It was acquired by the National Trust in 1969 and has undergone partial restoration, with further work ongoing in October 1984.