OVERVIEW

There was a Post Mill on the site, referred to in a C18 document. Underneath the existing base is the remains of a roundhouse built from C16 and C17 bricks.  This mill would almost certainly have been based upon two crossing trestles forming a square - as, for example, at Bourn. On top of this is a hexagonal structure built from a mixture of the same bricks and later ones, suggesting that the mill may have been rebuilt in the early C17 using three crossing trestles to support the post and hence the body of the mill.

1776 - The mill was rebuilt as a hexagonal Smock Mill, using the base of the old Post Mill.

c1882 - The smock was raised on to a taller brick tower, and the “modern” patent sails fitted.

Late C19 - An outhouse was added and an external drive for powering by a steam traction engine on calm days was fitted.

1903 -  John Chivers - local farmer and jam maker - bought the mill.

c1910 - A fixed gas engine was added.

c1920 - No longer driven by wind - only by the engine.

1930 - Ceased working and the sails were removed.

c1938 - Ground floor used as an ARP post with a concrete blockhouse inside.

1966 - Sold by Chivers into private ownership and “the House, the Mill, the Gates and the Gateposts” were all listed.  Concrete blockhouse removed.

1985 - Cap and Smock renovated.

2000 - New owners, Pippa and Steve Temple, began a major restoration programme.

2005 - New stocks fitted.

2007 - New sails fitted.  Award winner “Historic Building Restoration”, Cambridgeshire.

2010 External restoration completed

Since 2010 work has commenced on internal restoration with the aim of bringing the mill back to working order.  A rolling programme of maintenance has been introduced.

Click on link below for images through the years of the Mill.