Site overview

Leinthall Starkes Mill is a mock smock windmill in Herefordshire. It was built by Arthur Gibson and others in the first half of the 1990s, based on the smock mill at Upminster. The mill was apparently intended to generate electricity, although that use does not appear to have been completed.

Its windshaft may have come from Nyetimber Mill in Sussex, and the structure has a working fantail but no other internal machinery. It is one of the few windmill structures in Herefordshire and represents a late twentieth-century reconstruction or windmill-inspired building rather than a historic working corn mill.

Map

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No site photograph is currently available. Images will be added as field visits are carried out.

History

Leinthall Starkes Mill is a late twentieth-century mock smock windmill. It was built by Arthur Gibson and others in the first half of the 1990s and was based on the smock mill at Upminster. Construction of the sails was filmed in 1995, giving the structure a documented modern construction history.

The mill is not recorded as a traditional nineteenth-century corn mill. Its design follows a historic smock-mill form, but its purpose was apparently connected with electricity generation. That power-generating use does not appear to have been completed. The structure includes a windshaft that may have come from Nyetimber Mill in Sussex, and it has a working fantail. No other internal machinery is recorded.

The building is described in specialist windmill records as a residential smock or mock smock windmill. It stands as one of the few windmill structures in Herefordshire, representing modern windmill construction inspired by historic mill types rather than the survival of a documented working flour mill.

Timeline

Historic windshaft incorporated

The windshaft may have come from Nyetimber Mill in Sussex, and the mill has a working fantail.
1990–1995

Mock smock mill built

Leinthall Starkes Mill was built by Arthur Gibson and others in the first half of the 1990s.
1995

Sail construction filmed

Construction of the windmill sails was filmed in 1995.

Sources and records

Windmill World site entry
Windmill Enthusiast article on Leinthall Starkes windmill
Geograph record: Windmill at Leinthall Starkes
List of windmills in the United Kingdom