Old Windmill Rogiet · Monmouthshire · Wales

Old Windmill stands on the hill north of Rogiet, at the southern edge of higher ground rising from the levels and immediately north of the M4 motorway. The site is one of the most historically significant small tower-mill survivals in south-east Wales.

The tower was probably built about 1500, and the earliest known documentary reference occurs in a lease of 1526. The structure is therefore much earlier than most surviving Welsh windmill towers. Its original function was as a small tower windmill, probably with a single pair of stones. The internal diameter and surviving beam slots support that interpretation.

The later history of the structure shows a long period of survival after its milling use had ended. It was probably used as a watch tower in the eighteenth century. A survey of 1746 showed it as a round building, and the 1830 Ordnance Survey map referred to it as an old mill. The tower now survives as a ruin, with the west and south sides substantially masked by vegetation.

The surviving fabric is of small-scale rubble construction. The walls are about one metre thick, taper slightly, and are offset below the present wall head. Three original openings survive, possibly with a fourth, together with traces of former narrow stairs to an upper floor. A doorway survives on the south-west side with rubble jambs and a possible window above it. Opposite is a second opening, probably a window with a doorway above; the heads of both are broken. An intact slit window survives at upper-floor level on the south side. Internally there are three tiers of beam slots and indications of stairs from ground to first floor, with plaster lines showing their former continuation to the top floor.

Old Windmill was listed at Grade II on 22 February 1995. It was listed despite incomplete survival for its early date and as the only Monmouthshire representative of the south-west group of small tower mills.