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Mill burnt down
The smock mill was later destroyed by fire.
Site overview
Sittingbourne Windmill was a smock mill west of Sittingbourne church. It is recorded as standing four furlongs west of the church and appears in Kent windmill lists as a smock mill first recorded or built by 1843. The mill was still standing in 1880 and was later burnt down at an unrecorded date.
The site is now a former windmill location rather than a surviving complete mill. Its record places it within the nineteenth-century corn-milling landscape around Sittingbourne, where several mills served the town and surrounding agricultural district.
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
Sittingbourne Windmill was a smock mill standing west of Sittingbourne church. Kent windmill lists record the site as four furlongs west of the church and give 1843 as the first recorded or built date. The mill was part of the nineteenth-century wind-powered milling landscape of Sittingbourne, supplementing other local milling capacity in a town closely linked with agriculture, trade, and transport.
The mill remained standing in 1880. Its later history is defined by destruction by fire, at a date not preserved in the summary record. No complete windmill structure survives at the site. The positive record identifies the site as a nineteenth-century Sittingbourne smock mill, standing into the late Victorian period before its eventual loss. Its significance for the register is as a documented former windmill site rather than as a surviving or restored mill.
Timeline
1843
Smock mill recorded
A smock mill west of Sittingbourne church was recorded by 1843.
1880
Mill standing
The Sittingbourne smock mill was still standing in 1880.
Sources and records
List of windmills in Kent
Windmill World Kent windmills gazetteer
Kent windmill reference works
Windmill World Kent windmills gazetteer
Kent windmill reference works