Woodchurch Windmill Woodchurch · Kent · England

Woodchurch Windmill is the surviving Lower Mill of a pair of smock mills once known locally as the Twins. The other mill, the Upper Mill, dated from the early eighteenth century, had been moved from Place Lane, ceased working in 1910, and was later demolished. The surviving Lower Mill probably dates from the later eighteenth century or around 1820 and is associated with movement from Susan's Hill. Two windmills were already marked on the present site on the 1838 Woodchurch tithe map.

The mill is a Kentish smock corn mill with a single-storey brick base and a three-storey, eight-sided weatherboarded smock. It had a Kentish-style cap, fantail, stage at first-floor level, and four sails carried on a cast-iron windshaft. During its working life it used spring sails. The mill incorporated second-hand millstones from the smock mill at Dymchurch and the post mill at Kennington, and the sails present when working ceased had previously been used on High Halden post mill and Aldington smock mill. Auxiliary steam power of 7 horsepower was also used.

The mill worked until 1926. In 1946 Sir Sydney Nicholson, then owner, had the building made weatherproof, but his death the following year prevented further repair and restoration. Local fundraising supported the fitting of two new sails in 1957, although the cap was soon found unsafe and the sails had to be removed. By the late 1970s the mill was near collapse. Restoration then rebuilt the smock tower and returned the structure to sound condition. The work was completed in 1986, using patent sails because the windshaft was suitable for them. A new stage was made and fitted in May 2010. The mill survives as a prominent Grade II* listed windmill above Woodchurch, with its cap, sails, fantail, stage, windshaft, brake wheel, wallower, great spur wheel, and three pairs of stones forming the core of its restored historic character.