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Site overview

Northbourne Mill is a former smock corn mill at Northbourne, near Deal. Specialist mill records identify it as a house-converted smock mill and record the survival of its windshaft. It is one of the east Kent smock mills that passed from wind-powered corn milling into domestic reuse while retaining visible windmill fabric.

The complete working arrangement has gone, but the converted structure preserves the former smock-mill body and elements of the mill's mechanical identity. The site remains a recognisable survival of Northbourne's wind-powered milling landscape.

Map

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No site photograph is currently available. Images will be added as field visits are carried out.

History

Northbourne Mill was a smock corn mill at Northbourne, in east Kent. It stood within the agricultural landscape inland from Deal and Sandwich and was used for wind-powered corn milling before its conversion.

The mill survives in altered domestic use. Specialist windmill records identify it as a house-converted smock mill and record that the windshaft remains. This survival preserves an important part of the former drive arrangement, although the mill no longer operates as a working windmill and the full set of sails, cap function, stones, and associated machinery is no longer represented as a complete milling installation.

Northbourne Mill is therefore a converted mill rather than a restored public working windmill. Its importance lies in the retention of the smock-mill structure and windshaft, preserving the historic form of a former east Kent corn mill within the village landscape.

Timeline

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Smock corn mill operated

Northbourne Mill was recorded as a smock mill used for corn milling.
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Converted to house

The former smock mill was converted to domestic use.
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Windshaft retained

The converted mill is recorded with its windshaft surviving in situ.

Sources and records

Windmill World site entry
Mills Archive catalogue references
List of windmills in Kent