Chillenden Windmill Chillenden · Kent · England

Chillenden Windmill stands north of Chillenden on high open ground. Windmill sites are recorded here from at least the late sixteenth century, with mills marked on maps by Philip Symonson in 1596, John Speed in 1611, Robert Morden in 1695, Emanuel Bowen in 1736, Andrews, Drury and Herbert in 1769, and Ordnance Survey mapping from 1819. The present post mill was built in 1868 by Holman's of Canterbury to replace an earlier post mill that had blown down, and incorporated some material from that earlier mill.

The mill is a white-painted open-trestle post mill, an unusual survival in Kent. It had two pairs of millstones and a flour dresser, with four spring sails on a cast-iron windshaft and tailpole winding. The machinery included a cast-iron brake wheel with a wooden rim, a cast-iron wallower, an upright shaft, and a great spur wheel driving the underdrift stones. Recorded millers include William Hopper Bean, A. Laker, and N. W. Laker.

The mill worked until 1949, when it lost a sail in a gale. Local people raised funds in 1955 to make it weatherproof, and Kent County Council bought the mill for £100 in 1957 before restoring it. It collapsed in strong winds on 26 November 2003. The wreckage was dismantled and stored, and Kent County Council decided in 2004 that the mill should be rebuilt on site. IJP Millwrights carried out the reconstruction, including new crosstrees, quarter bars, windshaft, weatherboarding, and sails. The reconstructed frame was erected on 25 May 2005, and the restored mill reopened to visitors on 13 September 2005.