Lacey Green Windmill Lacey Green · Buckinghamshire · England

Lacey Green Windmill stands on the Chiltern escarpment at Lacey Green, near Princes Risborough. The windmill is consistently named as Lacey Green Windmill by its own website, the Chiltern Society, Windmill World, Buckinghamshire heritage records and Historic England. It is a smock mill used for corn milling, and its timber machinery is repeatedly described in specialist and local sources as dating from around 1650.

Sources also record that the mill was moved from Chesham to Lacey Green in 1821, a point which remains central to the accepted history of the building. The mill has an octagonal timber smock structure on a brick base, with wooden machinery, sails and a windshaft forming part of the surviving historic and restored fabric. It continued in working use until around 1915.

After milling ceased, the building was used during the 1920s as a weekend cottage, but temporary weatherproofing did not prevent decline, and by the mid 1930s it was in poor condition. During the Second World War, Buckinghamshire heritage records note use as a Home Guard observation post. In 1971 the Chiltern Society began a volunteer-led restoration programme.

Work continued for more than fifteen years, with the aim of preserving the mill and its machinery. The restored windmill is now maintained by Chiltern Society volunteers and presented as a public heritage site. It is Grade II* listed, and survives as a rare and highly significant smock mill with much of its historic timber machinery preserved.