White Mill Sandwich · Kent · England

White Mill stands on Ash Road west of Sandwich and is one of Kent's most complete surviving windmill sites. It was built in 1760 as a smock corn mill and is marked on Andrews, Drury and Herbert's map of 1769 and later Ordnance Survey mapping. The mill is an eight-sided, three-storey smock mill on a single-storey brick base, with four spring sails, a cast-iron windshaft, fantail winding, and a six-bladed fantail. It drives two pairs of millstones by wind, with a third pair driven by engine. Much of the internal machinery is wooden, including the brake wheel, wallower, great spur wheel, and stone nuts.

The Stanley family worked the mill for many years, supplying flour and animal feed through the Victorian period and beyond. White Mill last worked by wind in 1926. From then until 1957 it continued with a 28 horsepower oil engine. The engine house, later restored in 1995, contains a Lister petrol engine capable of driving a plate mill.

Restoration work began in the 1960s under Vincent Pargeter, before he became a professional millwright. A pair of sails from the demolished tower mill at Wingham was erected on the mill, and in 1964 the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings gave a grant for repair materials. Sandwich Borough Council acquired the mill in 1968, and it later passed to Kent County Council. The mill, miller's cottage of the 1830s, outbuildings, wheelwright's workshop, and blacksmith's forge now form White Mill Rural Heritage Centre. Recent restoration included removal of the cap for repair in 2018, reinstallation in 2023, and the fitting of four new sails in 2025.