Site overview

The Windmill adapted as machine-gun post stands in a field east of the B4320 near Angle. It is the surviving cylindrical base of a former windmill, built of local stone in irregular courses and standing to about five metres. The original windmill was probably out of use by the nineteenth century.

During the Second World War, the old tower base was adapted for defence, in association with the wartime protection of the Angle area and the Milford Haven waterway. The windmill base has a ground-level entrance on the east side, blocked original upper openings to the north and south, and inserted defensive openings. It was listed at Grade II in 1970 as a rare survival of a former windmill reused as a wartime defensive structure.

Map

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History

The Windmill adapted as machine-gun post stands near Angle, in a field east of the B4320 road after the turn north towards the village. It is a former windmill base later reused for military defence.

The original structure was a cylindrical stone windmill tower. The surviving base stands to about five metres and is built of local stone laid in irregular courses. It has a ground-level entrance on the east side. Original upper-level apertures to the north and south have been blocked with masonry; the southern openings have lintels with relieving arches above. The form records the building's origin as a windmill, although the cap, sails, machinery, and upper working structure have gone.

The windmill was probably redundant before its twentieth-century military reuse. Local historical accounts record that it was probably out of use and derelict by 1842. In 1941, after the establishment of Angle Airfield following air raids on Milford Haven, the tower was adapted to serve as a machine-gun post. The surrounding coastal and estuarine landscape formed part of the defensive zone protecting Milford Haven, and the reused tower base became one of the wartime defensive structures associated with Angle.

The building was listed at Grade II on 14 May 1970. Its significance lies in the combined survival of a former windmill base and its later adaptation as a Second World War machine-gun post, a rare layered reuse of a redundant industrial structure within a coastal defence landscape.

Timeline

Windmill built

The structure originated as a cylindrical local-stone windmill tower near Angle.

Defensive windmill base survives

The former windmill survives as a cylindrical local-stone base about five metres high, with original apertures and defensive alterations.
1842

Windmill probably derelict

The former windmill was probably already out of use and derelict by 1842.
1939–1945

Second World War defensive use

The adapted structure formed part of the wartime defensive landscape around Angle and Milford Haven.
1941

Adapted as machine-gun post

The redundant windmill base was adapted in 1941 to serve as a machine-gun post after the establishment of Angle Airfield.
1970

Listed building designation

The Windmill adapted as machine-gun post was designated as a Grade II listed building.

Sources and records

Cadw listed building record
British Listed Buildings entry
Dyfed Archaeological Trust historic landscape characterisation
Pembrokeshire visitor information
Traces of War site record
Hidden Pembrokeshire local history note