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Tower incorporated into warehouse
The surviving windmill tower rises through the roof of later industrial premises.
Site overview
Preesall Mill is a Grade II listed tower windmill on Park Lane, Preesall. It was built in 1839, replacing an earlier wooden peg or post mill nearby which was destroyed earlier that year. The tower is of rendered brick, circular in plan with battered walls, and retains an internal joist painted with the date 1839.
By 1928 the sails had been removed, although the mill was still running by electricity. The surviving tower now rises through the asbestos roof of a modern steel and brick warehouse, preserving the historic mill fabric within later industrial use.
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
Preesall Mill was built in 1839 as a masonry tower mill, replacing an earlier wooden peg mill on or near Mill Lane that had been destroyed by high winds in the first week of the same year. The new building formed part of the nineteenth-century corn-milling landscape of the Over Wyre district, where substantial tower mills took advantage of the exposed coastal plain.
The listed structure is a rendered brick tower with circular plan and battered walling. Segmental-headed window openings survive, and the tower rises through the roof of a later steel and brick warehouse. Inside, a pine main joist in the ground-floor ceiling carries the painted date 1839. A 1928 account described the mill as still running, but by electricity, and noted that the sails had been taken down.
The mill no longer survives as a working windmill with cap and sails, but its tower remains a protected structure. Its present form records both the nineteenth-century wind-powered corn mill and the building's later adaptation within industrial premises.
Timeline
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Grade II listed
Preesall Mill is protected as a Grade II listed building.
1839
Earlier peg mill destroyed
An earlier wooden peg mill near the site was destroyed by high winds.
1839
Tower mill built
Preesall Mill was built as a rendered brick tower windmill.
1928
Electric working recorded
The mill was still running by electricity after the sails had been removed.
Sources and records
Historic England listed building entry
Lancashire Past article: Preesall Windmill
Windmill World site entry
Red Rose Collections photograph record: Preesall Mill
Wyre Archaeology historical reconstruction
List of windmills in Lancashire
Lancashire Past article: Preesall Windmill
Windmill World site entry
Red Rose Collections photograph record: Preesall Mill
Wyre Archaeology historical reconstruction
List of windmills in Lancashire