Site overview
Albrighton windmill stands on Windmill Lane in Albrighton and Donington, Shropshire. It is a tower corn mill converted to a house. The building is listed Grade II and is dated by internal and external datestones of 1768.
The surviving structure has a sandstone ashlar base with a stepped plinth, a red brick upper part strengthened by iron straps, and a projecting wooden upper storey. The listed description records three storeys, twentieth-century windows and entrance, and the loss of the original machinery. During the early twentieth century the windmill was owned by Colonel Thorneycroft of Tettenhall Towers, who added the upper storey as a lookout point for views towards the Shropshire Hills.
The site is now represented by a converted standing tower rather than an operational mill.
Map
History
Albrighton windmill is recorded at the supplied coordinates on Windmill Lane, Albrighton. It was a tower mill used for corn milling and is now converted as a house. The building carries datestones of 1768, both externally and internally, providing the principal dated evidence for the mill.
Its surviving fabric includes a sandstone ashlar base with a stepped plinth, a red brick upper part strengthened by iron straps, and a projecting wooden upper storey. The listed description records three storeys, with twentieth-century windows and entrance. The interior machinery has been lost.
During the early twentieth century the windmill was owned by Colonel Thorneycroft of Tettenhall Towers near Wolverhampton. He built the upper storey as a lookout point from which to survey the distant Shropshire Hills. The windmill was listed Grade II on 26 September 1984.
Specialist mill records identify it as Albrighton tower mill and record its corn-milling function and house conversion. The consulted sources do not provide a full operational sequence or a final working date.
Timeline
Datestone records windmill date
Lookout storey added
Grade II listing
Sources and records
Windmill World entry: Albrighton windmill, Shropshire
Mills Archive record: Tower mill, Albrighton