Site overview
Hudson's Mill was a smock corn mill at Birchington. It is recorded as having perhaps been moved from within Birchington before being raised around 1850. The mill worked until 1891 and was demolished around 1900.
The associated Mill House still exists, preserving the historic association with the former wind-powered corn mill, although the survival of windmill fabric at the site has been interpreted cautiously in modern mill records. The site is therefore best understood as a former smock mill location with surviving associated domestic fabric rather than a complete windmill survival.
Map
History
Hudson's Mill was a smock corn mill at Birchington. Earlier Birchington windmills are recorded from the medieval and early modern period, and later county windmill lists identify Hudson's Mill as a smock mill which may have been moved from another site within Birchington. It was raised around 1850 and became part of the village's nineteenth-century wind-powered corn-milling landscape.
The mill worked until 1891. It was demolished around 1900, ending its survival as a complete smock mill. The associated Mill House still exists at the former mill site. Windmill records also note the possibility that the surviving house fabric may relate to the old mill base, but the site is most securely recorded as the location of Hudson's Mill and its surviving Mill House. Hudson's Mill is therefore a lost windmill site with associated built survival, preserving the location of a nineteenth-century Birchington corn mill.
Timeline
Smock mill raised
Working use ended
Mill demolished
Sources and records
Birchington Heritage Trust notes on Birchington windmills
SWAT Archaeology evaluation report for Mill Row, Birchington
List of windmills in Kent
Mills Archive site record