1840
Smock mill constructed
Woodditton Mill is recorded as a smock corn mill dating from around 1840.
Site overview
Woodditton Mill was a smock corn mill in Cambridgeshire. The mill is recorded as a wind-powered smock mill used for corn milling, with a construction date around 1840 and demolition in 1936. Later photographic records show the site after the loss of the complete mill, with the surviving base recorded in June 1936 and again in September 1974.
The remaining fabric therefore represents a reduced post-working survival rather than a restored windmill. Woodditton Mill preserves the position and lower structure of a former village corn mill, marking the place of a nineteenth-century wind-powered mill within the rural 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
Woodditton Mill was a smock corn mill, recorded in Cambridgeshire windmill lists with a construction date around 1840. Its working role was corn milling, and its form was that of a smock mill rather than a tower or post mill. The main working structure did not survive intact into the later twentieth century.
The mill was demolished in 1936. Photographic records from June of that year already show the surviving base, indicating that the complete smock body had been lost by that stage. A further photographic record in September 1974 again recorded the base, confirming the site's continued reduced survival after the demolition of the working mill.
Woodditton Mill is therefore represented by the base of a former smock corn mill. Although the sails, cap, upper body, and machinery are no longer recorded as surviving, the remaining base preserves the physical footprint of the windmill and maintains the site's connection with Woodditton's rural milling history.
Timeline
1936
Mill demolished
The smock mill was demolished in 1936, leaving the base as the principal surviving feature.
1974
Surviving base recorded
The base of the former smock mill was photographed in September 1974.
Sources and records
Windmill World site entry
Mills Archive site record
English Windmills Photographic Register
List of windmills in Cambridgeshire
Mills Archive site record
English Windmills Photographic Register
List of windmills in Cambridgeshire