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Truncated base survives
The former tower mill survives as a very truncated base at Portchester.
Site overview
Portchester windmill is represented by the very truncated base of a former tower mill. Specialist windmill records identify the site as a tower mill at Portchester, with photographic records showing the base of the tower. Earlier published work on Hampshire windmills notes a Portchester tower mill in the 1798 Posse Comitatus and also refers to a medieval windmill association in the area.
The surviving remains are fragmentary, preserving only the lower part of the tower rather than a complete mill with cap, sails, windshaft, or machinery. The site is therefore a reduced but recognisable survival of Portchester's wind-powered milling history.
Map
Map markers and directions links are provided for location reference only and do not indicate public access or permission to enter a site.
No site photograph is currently available. Images will be added as field visits are carried out.
History
Portchester windmill is a former tower mill site represented by a very truncated tower base. Specialist mill records place the surviving remains at Portchester and identify the structure as a tower mill. Photographic records from the Muggeridge Collection show the base of the tower, confirming that the standing survival is limited to the lower masonry rather than a complete windmill body.
The wider Portchester windmill record includes reference to a tower mill in the 1798 Posse Comitatus. Published work on Hampshire windmills also notes that a windmill had stood at Portchester in Norman times, although the surviving truncated tower base is the later recorded structure. The remaining fabric does not preserve the cap, sails, windshaft, millstones, or internal machinery. Its significance is as a physical remnant of a wind-powered milling site within the Portchester landscape, where only the base of the tower continues to mark the former mill.
Timeline
1798
Tower mill recorded
A Portchester tower mill was recorded in the 1798 Posse Comitatus.
Sources and records
Windmill World site entry
Windmill World Hampshire and Isle of Wight windmills list
Mills Archive photographic references
Published article: Windmills of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
Windmill World Hampshire and Isle of Wight windmills list
Mills Archive photographic references
Published article: Windmills of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight