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Drainage pumping use
The windpump formed part of the Stodmarsh and Wickhambreux drainage landscape.
Site overview
Wickhambreux Mill, also known as Stodmarsh Windpump, is a former hollow-post windpump at Stodmarsh. It dates from the mid nineteenth century and belonged to the drainage landscape of the Stodmarsh and Wickhambreux marshes rather than to corn milling. The hollow-post form allowed the wind-driven machinery to transmit power through the post to pumping equipment.
Specialist mill records and Kent windmill lists identify it as a hollow-post mill. The site is now a recorded windpump survival rather than a complete working drainage mill.
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
Wickhambreux Mill was a hollow-post windpump at Stodmarsh. The site is also referred to as Stodmarsh Windpump, reflecting its location within the marshland drainage landscape. It was built in the mid nineteenth century and represents the small drainage windmills that once formed part of water-management systems in low-lying east Kent.
Unlike a corn mill, the structure's function was pumping. Its hollow-post construction allowed power from the sails to be transmitted down through the post to the pump mechanism. This made the windpump part of a working drainage landscape rather than a milling site for flour or grain.
The windpump no longer survives as a complete working structure, but it remains recorded as a Kent hollow-post windpump. Its significance lies in preserving the identity of a mid-nineteenth-century drainage windmill associated with Stodmarsh and Wickhambreux.
Timeline
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Windpump site recorded
The site is recorded as a former hollow-post windpump rather than a complete working structure.
1850–1870
Hollow-post windpump built
Wickhambreux Mill was built in the mid nineteenth century as a hollow-post windpump.
Sources and records
Windmill World site entry
List of windmills in Kent
Kent Mills Society article: Stodmarsh Windpump, Wickhambreux
Mills Archive catalogue references
Wikimedia Commons record: Stodmarsh Windpump
List of windmills in Kent
Kent Mills Society article: Stodmarsh Windpump, Wickhambreux
Mills Archive catalogue references
Wikimedia Commons record: Stodmarsh Windpump