Wimbledon Windmill is a grade II* listed windmill

Windmill

A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...

 situated on Wimbledon Common in the London Borough of Merton

London Borough of Merton

The London Borough of Merton is a borough in southwest London, England.The borough was formed under the London Government Act in 1965 by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Mitcham, the Municipal Borough of Wimbledon and the Merton and Morden Urban District, all formerly within Surrey...

 (originally in Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

), in the west of South London

South London

South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...

 which is preserved as a museum.

History

An application to build a windmill on the Common was denied in 1799 when the applicant, one John Watney, failed to produce plans for the proposed mill when requested. In 1816, Charles March, a carpenter

Carpenter

A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....

 of Roehampton

Roehampton

Roehampton is a district in south-west London, forming the western end of the London Borough of Wandsworth. It lies between the town of Barnes to the north, Putney to the east and Wimbledon Common to the south. The Richmond Park golf courses are west of the neighbourhood, and just south of these is...

 applied for permission to build a windmill. The request was granted the following year and the mill was built. The mill stopped working in 1864, due to a land-dispute. In 1892, tenders for the repair of the mill were sought by the Common Conservators, and Messrs. Sanderson & Sons tender of £240 was accepted. The Royal Windmill Golf Club contributed £50 towards the cost of the repairs. During repairs, it was discovered that the main Post and Crosstrees were rotten and Sandersons proposed converting the mill to a smock mill, at a total cost of £350. The work was reported as being complete in November 1893. The base of the mill was converted into six apartment

Apartment

An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...

s for use by the Common Keepers. The original Patent sails were replaced by a shorter set of sails with fixed shutters. After the loss of a sail in the 1920s another set of sails with fewer shutters was placed on the mill. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 , the mill was camouflaged with a drab green scheme to reduce its visibility as it was in close proximity to army camps set up on the Common. The mill was repainted after the war ended but the sails were stopped in 1946 due to excessive wear in the gearing. In 1952, the mill was inspected and a list of repairs drawn up. After a public appeal in 1954 to raise funds, the mill was restored and the sails turned again on May 25, 1957. The mill was restored again in 1975 and turned into a museum. In 1999 a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund

Heritage Lottery Fund

The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...

 enabled the Patent sails to be restored to working order. One of the smaller apartments is preserved within the current museum. It is no longer a working mill, but the mill machinery is still largely intact.

Description

Wimbledon Windmill was built as a hollow post

Post mill

The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. The defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. The earliest post mills in England are thought to have...

 mill, with the drive to the stones passing through the centre of the main post. It was a hollow post mill for its entire working life, but was rebuilt as a smock mill

Smock mill

The smock mill is a type of windmill that consists of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded tower, usually with six or eight sides. It is topped with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind...

 when it was preserved in 1893. The mill has double Patent sails

Windmill sail

Windmills are powered by their sails. Sails are found in different designs, from primitive common sails to the advanced patent sails.-Jib sails:...

 and is winded by a fantail

Windmill fantail

A Fantail is a small windmill mounted at right angles to the sails, at the rear of the windmill, and which turns the cap automatically to bring it into the wind. The fantail was patented in 1745 by Edmund Lee, a blacksmith working at Brockmill Forge near Wigan, England, and perfected on mills...

. The windmill has an octagonal brick

Brick

A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...

 base of two stories, above which is a conical

Cone (geometry)

A cone is an n-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a base to a point called the apex or vertex. Formally, it is the solid figure formed by the locus of all straight line segments that join the apex to the base...

 tower formerly housing the main post. The cast iron

Cast iron

Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...

 windshaft carries four double Patent sails, and a 6 feet (1.83 m) diameter cast iron Brake Wheel with about 60 wooden cogs, which formerly drove the cast iron Wallower carried on a cast iron Upright Shaft. A Spur Wheel at the lower end of the upright shaft would have driven the millstones in the base of the mill. The conversion from Hollow Post mill to a Smock mill was done by Sanderson's, the Louth

Louth, Lincolnshire

Louth is a market town and civil parish within the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England.-Geography:Known as the "capital of the Lincolnshire Wolds", it is situated where the ancient trackway Barton Street crosses the River Lud, and has a total resident population of 15,930.The Greenwich...

 millwrights.

Culture and Media

The Mill House of Wimbledon Windmill is where Robert Baden-Powell stayed in 1902 and wrote parts of Scouting for Boys

Scouting for Boys

Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship is the first book on the Scout Movement, published in 1908. It was written and illustrated by Robert Baden-Powell, its founder...

, which was published in 1908. Wimbledon Windmill also featured in the Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

 episode titled The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (Bell of Doom)

The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve

The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 5 February to 26 February 1966...

which was filmed in 1966.

Public access

The windmill is now a museum, detailing its own history, as well as the history of windmills in general. The museum is open at weekends and Bank Holiday

Bank Holiday

A bank holiday is a public holiday in the United Kingdom or a colloquialism for public holiday in Ireland. There is no automatic right to time off on these days, although the majority of the population is granted time off work or extra pay for working on these days, depending on their contract...

s from March to October. It features interactive exhibits, such as push-button models and grain

GRAIN

GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...

-grinding activities, in addition to visitors being able to explore the layout and use of the actual mill. There is a cafe, and the windmill is situated on the Common adjacent to both open spaces and woodland.

External links

• Windmill World page on Wimbledon windmill.
• Wimbledon windmill museum