1992
Mock tower mill constructed
The mock tower mill was constructed as part of a pub and hotel complex at Caldecotte Lake.
Site overview
Caldecotte Arms Mill is a modern dummy tower mill at Caldecotte Lake, Milton Keynes. Mills Archive records it as a mock tower mill constructed in 1992 as part of a pub and hotel complex, built by millwrights using authentic components brought in from elsewhere. Windmill World records the same site as Caldecotte, Milton Keynes, a tower mill built as a dummy mill by professional millwrights for a pub and hotel complex.
The building formed part of the Caldecotte Arms beside Caldecotte Lake. Later pub records describe the venue as built around a fake windmill, formerly the Caldecotte Arms and reopened in 2025 as Hickory's Smokehouse. The structure is therefore not a historic working windmill, but a late twentieth-century windmill-form building associated with leisure and hospitality use beside the lake.
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
Caldecotte Arms Mill is a modern mock windmill at Caldecotte Lake in Milton Keynes. The Mills Archive identifies the site as Caldecotte Arms Mill and records it as a mock tower mill constructed in 1992 as part of a pub and hotel complex. The same record states that it was constructed by millwrights from authentic components brought in from elsewhere.
Windmill World records the site as Caldecotte, Milton Keynes, a tower mill built as a dummy mill by professional millwrights for a pub and hotel complex at NGR SP887355. Other published photographic and pub records describe the windmill as part of the Caldecotte Arms, a lakeside pub and restaurant complex. The building was therefore designed as a windmill-form landmark and hospitality structure, not as a working corn, drainage, pumping, or industrial mill.
A Milton Keynes heritage trail refers to the route passing the windmill and the Caldecotte Arms beside Caldecotte Lake, confirming its local landmark role in the lake landscape. Later CAMRA venue information records the former Caldecotte Arms as a lakeside venue built around a fake windmill, with the venue reopening in 2025 as Hickory's Smokehouse. The consulted sources do not identify original milling machinery or a historic working phase, because the site was purpose-built as a dummy mill.
Its current historical value is as a modern windmill-form building made by millwrights for a leisure complex.
Timeline
1992
Built by professional millwrights
Windmill World records the dummy mill as built by professional millwrights for the pub and hotel complex.
2025
Venue reopened as Hickory's Smokehouse
The former Caldecotte Arms venue was recorded as reopening in 2025 as Hickory's Smokehouse.
Sources and records
Mills Archive mill record
Windmill World site entry
CAMRA venue record
Milton Keynes Heritage Trail
Geograph photograph record
Windmill World site entry
CAMRA venue record
Milton Keynes Heritage Trail
Geograph photograph record