1600–1699
Brick windmill built
A brick windmill was built on the Devizes Castle site during the seventeenth century.
Site overview
The north tower of Devizes Castle incorporates part of a former brick windmill. The windmill element is seventeenth-century brick, with a rubble base that may relate to the earlier castle fabric. The windmill was later absorbed into the nineteenth-century castellated rebuilding of Devizes Castle, begun in 1842 and enlarged in the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s.
The castle is Grade I listed.
Map
Map markers and directions links are provided for location reference only and do not indicate public access or permission to enter a site.
No site photograph is currently available. Images will be added as field visits are carried out.
History
Devizes Castle includes the remains of a former windmill in its north tower. The mill structure is partly seventeenth-century brick, and its rubble base may incorporate earlier castle material. The former windmill was later retained within the nineteenth-century rebuilding of the castle.
The existing castellated structure was begun in 1842 by Goodridge of Bath and was then enlarged to the north during the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s. The north tower, incorporating the windmill fabric, became part of that asymmetrical Gothic and neo-Norman composition. The windmill no longer has a separate working identity, but its fabric survives within Devizes Castle, which was listed at Grade I in 1972.
Timeline
1842
Castle rebuilding began
The nineteenth-century rebuilding of Devizes Castle began, incorporating the former windmill into the north tower.
1860–1889
Northern enlargement
The northern part of Devizes Castle was enlarged during the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s around the incorporated windmill tower.
1972
Grade I listing
Devizes Castle, including the incorporated windmill fabric, was listed at Grade I.
Sources and records
Historic England National Heritage List entry
Windmill World site entry
Mills Archive mill record
Devizes Heritage article
Wiltshire Museum article
List of windmills in Wiltshire
Windmill World site entry
Mills Archive mill record
Devizes Heritage article
Wiltshire Museum article
List of windmills in Wiltshire