1658
Earlier wooden mill shown
An earlier wooden mill at Offley was shown on a map of 1658.
Site overview
Great Offley Windmill is represented by the listed tower remnant at Mill Farm, The Flints, on Luton Road. The surviving structure is a circular two-storey red-brick tower with a flat pointed corrugated-sheet roof, battered thick walls, boarded doors, small-pane windows, and traces of tar coating. Earlier windmills at Offley are recorded from the seventeenth century, and the later tower mill is recorded in the nineteenth century.
The brick tower mill was last used as a windmill in 1895 and was reduced to two storeys in 1926. Although the cap, sails, and working machinery have gone, the remaining tower preserves the base of the former wind-powered corn-milling structure.
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
Great Offley Windmill stands at Mill Farm, The Flints, on Luton Road. The site belongs to a longer windmill tradition at Offley: earlier post mills are recorded from the seventeenth century, and the later tower mill replaced an earlier wooden mill first shown on a map of 1658.
The surviving mill was built of red brick in the nineteenth century. North Hertfordshire Museum records a construction date of 1855, while windmill lists place the tower mill in use from the early 1850s. The structure was built as a tower mill and appears in later sources as Offley Mill. It worked as a wind-powered mill until 1895. After its working life ended, the tower was reduced to two storeys in 1926.
The Grade II listed remains are now a circular two-storey structure in red brick laid in English bond, with steeply battered thick walls and a flat pointed roof of corrugated sheeting. Boarded doors survive at two levels, and small rectangular windows are set at the cardinal points. The listing describes the structure as possibly the base of a taller windmill tower, with traces of tar coating still visible externally. Great Offley Windmill is therefore a reduced but recognisable survival of a former tower mill, preserving the footprint and lower fabric of the wind-powered site.
Timeline
1851–1855
Brick tower mill built
The later red-brick tower windmill at Great Offley was built in the mid nineteenth century.
1895
Wind-powered use ended
The mill was last used as a windmill in 1895.
1926
Tower reduced
The windmill tower was reduced to two storeys in 1926.
1988
Grade II listed
The tower of the windmill at Mill Farm was listed at Grade II.
Sources and records
Historic England listed building entry
British Listed Buildings entry
North Hertfordshire Museum article: Frozen in Time
Windmill World site entry
List of windmills in Hertfordshire
British Listed Buildings entry
North Hertfordshire Museum article: Frozen in Time
Windmill World site entry
List of windmills in Hertfordshire