Site overview
West Mill at Pinchbeck, also known as Glenside Mill or Speed's Mill, is a surviving tower corn mill beside the River Glen near Small Drove Lane. Built in 1812, it formed part of the village's wind-powered corn-milling landscape and later continued with modern milling machinery after wind working ceased. The tower survives as a preserved windmill structure, known for its distinct lean and later replica cap.
Its survival is one of the visible reminders of Pinchbeck's former group of mills.
Map
History
West Mill was built in 1812 beside the River Glen at Pinchbeck West. It is also recorded under the alternative names Glenside Mill and Speed's Mill. The mill was a wind-powered tower corn mill and stood with a bakehouse close to Small Drove Lane, serving the local grain-milling economy of the south Lincolnshire fenland.
The mill worked by wind until 1931. Twentieth-century photographs record the standing tower in the period after wind working, and the windshaft was recorded on the ground in later mill-photography collections. Milling did not end immediately with the loss of wind power: Glenside Mill continued to use modern milling machinery until the 1970s. By the late twentieth century the tower had survived as a distinctive preserved structure, with a noted lean and later replica cap. Together with Northgate Mill, it represents one of the surviving windmill structures in Pinchbeck.
Timeline
Wind working ended
Mill photographed after wind working
Modern milling machinery remained in use
Preserved tower with replica cap
Sources and records
Windmill World site entry
Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology record
Geograph photographic record
Heritage South Holland windmills article
Lincolnshire windmills list