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Tower survives
The cylindrical tower mill survives in the garden of Mill House on Mill Lane.
Site overview
Holland Mill is a former tower mill on Mill Lane, Up Holland. Windmill records identify it as a tower mill used for corn and coal milling, built in 1768, while other historical accounts place its construction in the 1750s. It was built on the ridge overlooking the later Skelmersdale new town area and is associated with local engineer and inventor Richard Melling.
The mill was unusual for having eight sails and may have been among the earliest windmills fitted with a fantail for automatic winding. It became derelict in the 1890s. The surviving tower is Grade II listed as the windmill in the garden of Number 53, Mill House.
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
Holland Mill stands in the garden of Mill House on Mill Lane, Up Holland. It is an unusual cylindrical tower mill on the ridge above what is now the Skelmersdale area. Windmill records give a date of 1768 and identify the building as a tower mill used for corn and coal milling. Other accounts describe it as built in the 1750s by the local engineer and inventor Richard Melling, as a test bed for technical innovations associated with Melling or his employee Edmund Lee.
The mill is especially notable for its reported eight-sail arrangement and its association with early fantail development. It may have been one of the first windmills equipped with a fantail to turn the sails automatically into the wind. The mill was re-equipped several times during its working life before becoming derelict in the 1890s.
The surviving tower is protected as a Grade II listed building under the official name Windmill in Garden of Number 53 (Mill House). It no longer retains working sails, cap, or milling machinery, but the standing tower preserves an important experimental windmill site within the Up Holland landscape.
Timeline
1750–1768
Tower mill built
Holland Mill was built in the mid eighteenth century, with windmill records giving 1768.
1750–1799
Eight-sail experimental mill recorded
The mill is associated with Richard Melling and with early automatic fantail development.
1890–1899
Mill became derelict
Holland Mill became derelict in the 1890s.
1973
Grade II listed
The windmill in the garden of Number 53, Mill House, was listed at Grade II.
Sources and records
Historic England listed building entry
Windmill World site entry
Geograph photograph: Holland Windmill, Upholland
Red Rose Collections photograph record
Mills Archive site record
List of windmills in Lancashire
Windmill World site entry
Geograph photograph: Holland Windmill, Upholland
Red Rose Collections photograph record
Mills Archive site record
List of windmills in Lancashire