Site overview
Bloxham Grove Mill is a small post mill at Bloxham Grove Farm, Bloxham. It was built in 1865 by Henry Warriner as a memorial to all windmills. The listed building is principally wooden, with minor twentieth-century restoration, and stands on high ground south-west of the farm complex.
It has four cloth-covered sails, a weather-boarded gable-roofed wooden buck, iron-strapped cross-trees, and tapering brick piers capped with stone and concrete. The interior contains one pair of 30-inch stones, a wooden gear wheel with 48 cogs, a governor, and a detachable hopper. It was restored in 2008 and returned to occasional grinding after more than a century.
Map
History
Bloxham Grove Mill stands at Bloxham Grove Farm, on high ground south-west of the farm complex. It was built in 1865 by Henry Warriner as a memorial to all windmills. The mill is a one-third scale post mill, not a full-size commercial tower mill. Its construction was associated with the Warriner family's improving farm at Bloxham Grove, where other agricultural changes included rebuilding farm buildings and installing steam-driven milling machinery.
The mill is principally wooden. It has a weather-boarded, gable-roofed wooden buck containing the machinery, four sails covered by cloth rolled down the sail frames, and a main post supported by iron-strapped cross-trees on stone- and concrete-capped tapering brick piers. The rear of the body has paired doors with iron strap handles. Inside, the machinery comprises one pair of 30-inch stones driven directly from above by a wooden gear wheel with 48 cogs. A governor hangs beneath the stones, and the stones are fed from a detachable hopper.
The mill became decayed during the twentieth century and was photographed in deteriorating condition in the early twenty-first century. It was listed at Grade II on 25 June 2007 and restored in 2008. After restoration, it ground corn again for the first time in more than a century. The mill survives in good condition with its machinery intact.
Timeline
Deteriorating condition photographed
Listed at Grade II
Restored and returned to grinding
Sources and records
Windmill World entry: Bloxham windmill
Mills Archive catalogue records for Bloxham Grove Mill
Great Chishill Windmill page: Other Post Mills
Bloxham Online article: Bloxham Grove Windmill Project update
Geograph image record: Post Mill by Bloxham Grove Farm
Komoot highlight: Bloxham Grove Windmill