Thompson's Mill Epworth · Lincolnshire · England

Thompson's Mill was one of several tower windmills at Epworth on the Isle of Axholme. It was built in the early nineteenth century as a wind-powered corn mill and became associated with the Thompson family, who worked it for several generations.

The mill was equipped with four patent sails and three pairs of stones. This arrangement made it a substantial working tower mill rather than a minor village structure. In 1882 the mill was tailwinded, a serious event in which the wind struck the sails from behind and damaged the working arrangement. It was repaired by public subscription, showing its continued importance to the local milling community.

The mill remained active into the twentieth century. By the Second World War it was still working with two sails. In December 1944 it was damaged by a flying bomb, but milling did not cease completely. The site continued provender milling using engine-driven machinery, with work continuing into the 1980s.

The present survival is a converted tower mill, but it retains much machinery. Its value lies in the combination of surviving tower fabric, retained internal equipment, and a documented working history that links nineteenth-century wind milling with twentieth-century engine-assisted provender production.