Wimbledon Windmill Museum 2025

A Little Bit of Interesting History

A new application was made in 1816, by Charles March, who was granted a 99-year lease to erect a Corn Mill on a small plot of land on Wimbledon Common, at an annual rent of two shillings. He was a carpenter but not a millwright which may account for the unusual construction of the mill. Originally the single-storey octagonal brick base together with a second storey constructed of wood housed all the working machinery. Above this was a conical tower which held the post supporting the cap on which the sails were mounted. The sails had a span of about 15m, were mounted on a cast iron shaft 2.4m in length which also carried a 1.8m diameter iron wheel with wooden cogs; this drove a smaller bevel gear known as a wallower, mounted on the top of the vertical shaft which ran down the inside of the hollow post. The post was hollow so that an iron shaft could be taken down inside it to turn the millstones on the floor below. It was therefore known as a hollow-post mill. 

While common in Holland, such mills are most unusual in this country but a mill of this type existed in Southwark, near the site of the old Globe Theatre, so Charles March probably copied this design, being ignorant of more usual windmill practice.  

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