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Smock corn mill recorded
Cobbin's Mill is recorded as a wind-powered smock corn mill on Downham Road, Ely.
Site overview
Cobbin's Mill was a smock corn mill on Downham Road, Ely. Specialist mill records identify it as a wind-powered corn mill and record its later condition as ruins. Historic photographs place the mill beside Little Downham Road and show the former smock mill behind a hedgerow during its later life.
Community archive material dates one image of Cobbin's Mill to 1915–1925, while later photographic records describe the structure progressing from a derelict mill with four sails to a ruined base by the late 1960s and 1970. Windmill World records the site as a smock corn mill in ruinous condition, with later photographs from 1991 showing the remains on Downham Road. The site therefore represents the surviving ruin of Ely's former wind-powered corn-milling landscape.
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
Cobbin's Mill stood on Downham Road, also recorded as Little Downham Road, at Ely. It was a wind-powered smock corn mill, and its recorded history is strongest in twentieth-century photographic documentation of its decline and survival. A community archive image dated 1915–1925 records Cobbin's Mill on Downham Road, placing the structure within the early twentieth-century landscape of Ely.
Mills Archive material includes photographs of the smock mill behind a hedgerow, including work by Henry Charles Cross and later survey material. The mill remained sufficiently complete in some twentieth-century views to be recorded as a derelict smock mill with four sails, but its condition deteriorated. Photographic register entries describe the Downham Road smock mill as derelict with four sails before recording the ruined base in 1969 and 1970.
Windmill World identifies the site as a smock corn mill and records its present condition as ruins, with Trevor Stainwright collection photographs taken on Downham Road in August 1991. The site now reads as a ruined remnant rather than a complete mill, preserving the location and residual fabric of a former Ely wind-powered corn mill.
Timeline
1915–1925
Mill photographed on Downham Road
A community archive image records Cobbin's Mill on Downham Road, Ely, during the period 1915–1925.
1940–1949
Later survey photograph taken
A photograph in the 1929 windmill survey material is dated to the 1940s and records Cobbin's Mill on Downham Road.
1969
Ruined base recorded
Photographic register material records the Downham Road smock mill as a ruined base in 1969.
1970
Ruined base photographed
The ruined base of the former smock mill was again recorded in 1970.
1991
Ruins photographed
Trevor Stainwright collection photographs record the ruined mill on Downham Road in August 1991.
Sources and records
Windmill World site entry
Mills Archive catalogue record
All Windmills site entry
Ely Community Archive record
English Windmills Photographic Register
Mills Archive catalogue record
All Windmills site entry
Ely Community Archive record
English Windmills Photographic Register