Sneaths Mill Lutton Gowts · Lincolnshire · England

Sneaths Mill stands at Lutton Gowts on the old sea-bank landscape north of Long Sutton. It is one of Lincolnshire's most unusual windmill survivals, built as an octagonal brick tower rather than as the more familiar round brick tower mill. The dated plaque above the door gives 1779, and Historic England records the structure as a red-brick tower windmill of that date. Historic England educational material explains that the date refers to the brick casing of an earlier wooden smock mill on the site.

The mill is a four-storey octagonal structure with dogtooth eaves. Its south side has a doorway with an ashlar plaque inscribed 'T.D. Ayliff 1779', and the other sides retain window openings and blocked doorways. Internally, the listed fabric includes an oak windshaft with an iron poll end and clasp-arm brake wheel. The surviving poll end and trundle gears are especially important survivals in the Lincolnshire milling context.

Sneaths Mill worked until the early 1930s, when gale damage ended its operation. The cost of repair was prohibitive, and the mill was abandoned. Attempts were made in 1939 to secure preservation, but the outbreak of war interrupted the effort. By 1971 only part of one sail remained and the cap was missing.

The mill is now protected at Grade I and has also appeared on the Heritage at Risk Register. Sneaths Mill Trust has been associated with preservation efforts, and the mill is recognised as a nationally important survival of an early tower-mill form. Its present significance lies in the octagonal brick tower, surviving early machinery, and rare survival as the last of a local group of similar mills.