Willaston Windmill Willaston · Cheshire · England

Willaston windmill is a tower corn mill on Mill Lane. It was built in 1800 by William Lightbound to replace an earlier post mill and was constructed by millwright Henry Gardener. At five storeys high it was recorded as the tallest windmill built on the Wirral peninsula.

The mill passed through several ownership phases. After the Rose and Price families, it was bought by the Radfords in 1860. They invested heavily in its machinery so that it could compete with steam mills. A steam engine and additional stones were installed, bringing the total to ten pairs of stones: six powered by steam and four by wind. During this ambitious phase the mill could run for twenty-four hours a day when wind conditions allowed. The Radfords brought grain from Birkenhead docks by traction engine and owned two ships used to import grain from Russia.

Financial difficulties led to repossession in 1879. The mill then worked on a less ambitious scale, with the steam engine no longer functioning and production focused on animal feed. Later owners included the Hawkins, Catto, and Hale families. Working life ended in 1930.

The Wirral Society bought the mill in 1937 for preservation, but the Second World War interrupted preservation activity and the building was used as a lookout post. It then deteriorated until Teresa Morris bought it in 1958 for conversion to a house. Willaston windmill now survives as a house-converted tower mill, preserving the form of one of Wirral's most substantial wind-powered corn mills.