Black Mill Whitstable · Kent · England

Black Mill stands on Borstal Hill at Whitstable. A windmill was already marked on the site in the eighteenth century, and the present smock mill was built in 1815. It was a four-storey, eight-sided smock mill on a single-storey brick base, with a stage at first-floor level. The mill had four patent sails carried on a cast-iron windshaft and was winded by a fantail.

The mill was built as a corn mill and worked through the nineteenth century. Its original external appearance was different from its later name: the mill was first painted white, but in 1885 it was tarred black. Because it was a prominent landmark for sailors, Trinity House had to be notified of the change. The dark finish gave rise to the name Black Mill.

The mill last worked in about 1905. In 1928 it was converted into a studio by Laurence Irving, grandson of the actor Sir Henry Irving. It later became a motel and was subsequently converted to residential use. Although the sails no longer survive as working equipment, the building retained important internal machinery. The brake wheel, cast-iron wallower, upright shaft and great spur wheel survive, and the mill formerly drove three pairs of millstones overdrift. Externally the converted mill bears stocks and a dummy fantail. Black Mill remains a notable survival of Whitstable's wind-powered corn-milling history and is distinct from the other former Whitstable mill sites.