Draper's Windmill Margate · Kent · England

Draper's Windmill was built at Margate around 1845 by John Holman of Canterbury. It replaced an earlier mill associated with Nayland Point and became the main survivor of a group of three windmills on St Peter's Footpath: Draper's Mill, Little Draper's Mill, and the brick tower pumping mill known as The Pumper.

The mill is a four-storey, eight-sided smock on a single-storey brick base, with a stage at first-floor level. It has double patent sweeps carried on a cast-iron windshaft, a fantail, a brake wheel, and three pairs of millstones driven overdrift. Its setting includes associated buildings that help illustrate the mill's later mixed power arrangements, including engine-related use.

The mill worked solely by wind until 1916. A 20 horsepower gas engine was then installed, allowing milling to continue when wind conditions were poor. The sails and fantail were removed in 1927, and the gas engine continued in use until the late 1930s. By the 1960s the mill was threatened with demolition. The Draper's Windmill Trust was formed in 1965, and Kent Education Committee acquired the mill in 1968.

Restoration took place between 1969 and 1975. The fantail was replaced in 1970, one pair of sweeps was fitted in December 1971, and the second pair followed in 1974. The stage prepared for Black Mill at Barham was adapted for Draper's after the Barham mill was destroyed by fire. The mill was later restored to milling order and remains managed by the Draper's Windmill Trust with Kent County Council. In 2025 its listed status was upgraded to Grade II*, recognising the rarity and survival of the nineteenth-century smock mill.