Potton Windmill Potton · Bedfordshire · England

Potton Windmill occupies a long-established milling site. The Bedfordshire HER records the remains as a brick tower mill built on the site of an earlier mill, with the first mention of a mill in the area dating from 1313. A miller is mentioned in the parish register in 1710, although the Enclosure Map and Award of 1774 did not show a mill despite the field-name Windmill Field.

By 1823 John Smith was listed as a miller at Potton Mill in Pigot and Co's Directory, and the extant mill was shown on Bryant's county map in 1826. A mortgage and abstract of title of 1833 described one acre with a corn windmill and roundhouse, barn and other buildings, together with running and going gears, sails, stone cloths, rigging wheels, wire machines, and dressing machines. The mill was a corn tower mill.

Bedfordshire HER notes describe it as remarkable for having six sails rather than the usual four, the only known Bedfordshire example of that arrangement, and as having worked four pairs of stones. Another unusual feature was a raised gallery or gangway leading from an upper floor to a nearby granary. The mill was converted for steam working during its operating life.

It continued working until January 1928, when the sails got athwart the wind in a gale, the fan was blown away, and the shutters were stripped off. It was subsequently recorded in derelict condition with stocks and machinery remains. In 1953 the tower was partially demolished, leaving it about half its original height.

Bedfordshire HER describes the site today as the remains of a brick tower mill. Windmill World records Potton as a derelict corn tower mill, confirming the present survival of a reduced former windmill structure.