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Five-storey corn mill in use
The tower corn mill had five storeys, four patent sails, three pairs of stones, and an ogee cap.
Site overview
Ludford Magna Windmill was a tower corn mill built by Saundersons of Louth in 1869 or 1889 to replace an earlier post mill. It had five storeys, four patent sails, three pairs of stones, and an ogee cap. The mill worked by wind until 1932.
Because it stood near an airfield, the sails, cap, and upper section were removed, leaving a three-storey stump. Later records describe the reduced tower as a corn-mill stump or silo. The surviving remains preserve the base of one of the later Lincolnshire tower mills built by the Louth millwrighting firm Saunderson.
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
Ludford Magna Windmill stood in Ludford Magna and replaced an earlier post mill. The Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology records the tower mill as built by Saundersons of Louth in 1869, while the county windmill list records the tower as dating from 1889. It was a five-storey mill with four sails. Other mill-index records describe it as having four patent sails, three pairs of stones, and an ogee cap, making it a substantial late Lincolnshire tower corn mill.
The mill worked by wind until 1932. Its later reduction was shaped by its position near an airfield. The sails, cap, and upper section of the tower were removed, and the remaining structure was reduced to a three-storey stump. Later records also describe the reduced tower as used as a corn stump or silo.
Ludford Magna Windmill survives not as a complete working tower but as a reduced base retaining the footprint and lower mass of the mill. It is a significant remnant of a late nineteenth-century Saunderson-built windmill and of the wind-powered milling landscape of the Lincolnshire Wolds.
Timeline
1869–1889
Tower mill built
Ludford Magna Windmill was built by Saundersons of Louth to replace an earlier post mill.
1932
Wind working ceased
Ludford Magna Windmill worked by wind until 1932.
1932
Sails, cap, and upper tower removed
Because the mill stood near an airfield, the sails, cap, and upper section were removed, leaving a three-storey stump.
1978
Tower stump photographed
The stump of the tower was recorded in 1978.
Sources and records
Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology Ludford records
Windmill World site entry
Mills Archive catalogue entry
Guy Blythman Windmill Photographic Register
List of windmills in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire Windmills by Peter Dolman
Windmill World site entry
Mills Archive catalogue entry
Guy Blythman Windmill Photographic Register
List of windmills in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire Windmills by Peter Dolman