John Webb's Mill Thaxted · Essex · England

John Webb's Mill is a tower corn mill at Thaxted, also known as Lowe's Mill. It was built in 1804 for John Webb, a local farmer and landowner, to supply growing demand for flour locally and in London. The mill was constructed from local materials: timber came from two local farms and the bricks were made in the Chelmer valley on land also owned by Webb.

The mill is a five-storey brick tower mill with a domed cap and gallery, a stage at first-floor level, and fantail winding. It stands about 48 feet high to the tower and about 54 feet to the top of the cap. As built, it had a wooden windshaft, four common sails, and two pairs of millstones. In its later working arrangement it carried patent sails on a cast-iron windshaft and drove three pairs of stones. The gearing included a clasp-arm brake wheel, wooden wallower, cast-iron upright shaft, great spur wheel, and three stone nuts.

The mill was worked by millers named Lowe or John Webb, giving rise to both of its principal names. Recorded millers included John Webb in 1823, Lowe in 1837, John Webb again between 1848 and 1853, and Harry Lowe between 1907 and 1910. By 1890 the mill had four double patent sails, and by the early twentieth century it worked with two double patent sails and two single patent sails. It last worked commercially in 1910.

After more than twenty years out of use, Thaxted Civic Trust carried out essential repairs and made the structure waterproof. The lower floors were later used as a scout hut. The mill passed into the ownership of Thaxted Parish Council in the 1950s, and the Thaxted Society, formed in 1964, became closely involved in its restoration to working order. In 2004 the cap and sails were removed for repairs to the brickwork at the top of the tower. The work was completed by the end of that year, and the mill was officially reopened by Lord Petre on 8 April 2005. On 5 April 2010 a sail stock broke and one sail crashed to the ground, damaging the stage. John Webb's Mill remains a Grade II* listed landmark on the edge of Thaxted, with a rural museum on the lower floors.