Quainton Windmill Quainton · Buckinghamshire · England

Quainton Windmill stands to the north of The Green at Quainton. Historic England records the official name as Quainton Windmill and notes the alternative historic name Banner Mill. It is a brick-built tower corn mill, built between 1830 and 1832 by James Anstiss, who was both miller and farmer.

Construction began in 1830 but was temporarily halted during the winter when Anstiss suddenly went to North America. A temporary thatched roof was built to protect the partly completed tower, and work resumed when he returned. The clay for the bricks was dug from a pit about 100 metres from the windmill and fired in a nearby kiln.

Historic England notes that the tower is thought to have been built without external scaffolding, with the brickwork laid from inside the structure. William Cooper, millwright of Aylesbury, installed the machinery during the following twelve months, and the mill was completed in 1832. The original four double-sided shuttered patent sails had 168 wooden framed shutters, covered with canvas and fixed with copper nails.

The original fantail had four blades, although the restored mill now has eight. Machinery for three pairs of stones was installed, but Historic England states that only two pairs are believed to have operated. By the mid nineteenth century a 20 horsepower vertical steam engine had been installed on a bed-stone in the ground floor room, requiring the first floor to be raised.

The mill's final working date is uncertain. The 1891 census recorded James Anstiss and his son Thomas as retired millers, and the mill stood derelict after the fantail blew off in a gale in 1899. One pair of stones was sold in 1914, and in the same year the steam engine and boiler were sold for scrap to Prentice of Tring.

Dereliction continued until 1974, when the Quainton Windmill Society was formed. Restoration took many years. Replacement sails were installed by October 1992, the sails turned by wind power in January 1993, and grain was milled in February 1997 for the first time in about a century.

Further defects led to the sails being removed again by 2000. A second set of sails was hoisted in October 2004 and flour milling recommenced in May 2007. Historic England upgraded the listing to Grade II* in 2013, citing architectural interest, intactness, rarity and the survival of original working machinery and fittings.