Bradwell Windmill Bradwell · Buckinghamshire · England

Bradwell Windmill stands just off Grafton Street at New Bradwell. The site is recorded by Milton Keynes Museum, New Bradwell Heritage, Windmill World and the Bradwell Windmill Project as Bradwell Windmill, with Windmill World also identifying it as New Bradwell - Milton Keynes. It is a limestone tower mill, built of locally quarried stone, and is regarded by local sources as probably the oldest tower mill in Buckinghamshire.

New Bradwell Heritage records that Samuel Holman purchased an acre of land from Henry Wilmin in 1803 and erected the mill around 1805, at an estimated cost of about £500. Its position near the newly opened Grand Junction Canal gave the mill access to wider flour markets beyond the immediate locality. Samuel Holman worked the mill until his death in 1825, after which it passed to his wife and son.

By 1846 it was owned by Elizabeth Curtis and operated by William Carr of Carr's Mill, Haversham. In 1857 Robert Adams of Bradwell Abbey bought the mill for his ward, John Abbott, but Abbott did not take up the business. Robert Adams junior then ran the mill, combining farming and milling until 1871.

The mill had a stone tower reinforced by a mound, which provided an elevated walkway for attending to the sails. It originally had one pair of common sails and one pair of spring sails, both recorded as 52 feet long. The renovated mill has four spring sails.

Internally, the building has three floors above ground level: the stone floor, bin floor and dust floor. The stone floor contains two sets of millstones, one pair of Derbyshire Peak stones used for animal feed and one pair of French burr stones for finer flour. An unusual fireplace survives on the ground floor, a rare feature in a flour mill because of the danger of flour dust ignition.

The mill finally ceased working in 1876 when the railway company bought adjacent land for the Wolverton to Newport Pagnell line. The last miller is recorded by the Bradwell Windmill Project as Robert Saxby. The building then stood derelict for more than a century.

Restoration was undertaken by Milton Keynes Development Corporation from the 1970s, with further work in the 1990s. A refurbishment in 2014 made the structure watertight, restored the sails and milling mechanism, and led to Milton Keynes Museum being appointed custodian. The mill is owned by Milton Keynes City Council and is Grade II listed.

It is opened on selected days, when the machinery can be seen in action and flour may be milled on site.