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Post corn mill in operation
Chatham Green Mill worked as a wind-powered post corn mill at Great Waltham.
Site overview
Chatham Green Mill is the former post mill at Great Waltham, now represented by the surviving roundhouse base associated with The Windmill inn at Chatham Green. Specialist mill records identify it as a wind-powered corn mill, and Windmill World records the base as converted into four rooms for the adjacent inn. Photographic records from the later twentieth century show the surviving roundhouse and brick-pier remains.
The mill is part of the post-mill landscape of central Essex, where the working wooden mill body has gone but the lower roundhouse preserves the footprint and substructure of the former windmill. Its present survival is closely tied to the inn that preserves the windmill name at Chatham Green.
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
Chatham Green Mill stood at Chatham Green in the parish of Great Waltham. It was a wind-powered post corn mill, now surviving as the former roundhouse base associated with The Windmill inn. The mill body, sails and upper machinery have gone, but the roundhouse remains as the visible structural survival of the site.
The Mills Archive records Chatham Green Mill as a wind-powered corn mill in the historic county of Essex. Windmill World identifies the site as the Great Waltham post mill and records the surviving base as converted into four rooms for the adjacent Windmill Inn. This reuse preserved the lower circular structure after the working mill had disappeared.
The later history of the site is documented mainly through physical survival and photographs. Windmill-photographic records identify images of the surviving roundhouse, including views from 1969 and 1972 and details of brick piers. The inn’s own accommodation description also records that four of its rooms are built within the original roundhouse base of the windmill.
Chatham Green Mill now survives as a post-mill base incorporated into hospitality use. The surviving roundhouse gives the former windmill a continued presence in the village landscape, while the associated inn preserves both the name and the physical lower structure of the lost corn mill.
Timeline
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Post-mill body lost
The working post-mill body, sails and machinery were removed, leaving the roundhouse base.
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Roundhouse adapted for inn rooms
Four rooms for the adjacent Windmill Inn were formed within the original roundhouse base.
1969
Roundhouse photographed
The surviving roundhouse was photographed in summer 1969.
1972
Brick-pier remains recorded
Later photographs recorded the surviving roundhouse and brick-pier details.
Sources and records
Mills Archive site record
Windmill World site entry
Windmill Photographic Register
The Windmill Inn accommodation information
Essex windmills list
Windmill World site entry
Windmill Photographic Register
The Windmill Inn accommodation information
Essex windmills list