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Corn mill identified
Bannister's Mill is identified as a wind-powered smock corn mill at Sawtry.
Site overview
Bannister's Mill at Sawtry was a smock corn mill. Windmill World identifies the site as a smock mill used for corn milling and records its later condition as house converted, linking it with the Mills Archive entry for Bannister's Mill, Sawtry. The wider Cambridgeshire windmill list gives 1778 as an early recorded date for the Sawtry smock mill.
Twentieth-century photographic records show the mill in successive post-working states: disused with its cap in 1946, derelict with windshaft and brakewheel in 1972, and house-converted with a conical roof in 1976. The surviving site therefore reflects a former working corn mill adapted to domestic use while retaining a documented windmill identity.
Map
Map markers and directions links are provided for location reference only and do not indicate public access or permission to enter a site.
No site photograph is currently available. Images will be added as field visits are carried out.
History
Bannister's Mill is the recorded smock windmill site at Sawtry. The mill is identified by Windmill World as a smock corn mill and by the Mills Archive as Bannister's Mill, Sawtry. A Cambridgeshire windmill listing records the Sawtry smock mill from 1778, placing the site within the eighteenth-century wind-powered milling landscape of the county.
Its later record is mainly photographic and shows the transition from disused mill to domestic adaptation. In September 1946 the mill was photographed disused but still with its cap. By September 1972 A. C. Smith recorded it as derelict, with the windshaft and brakewheel still visible.
A later photograph from August 1976 recorded the former mill as a house-converted tower with a conical roof. Windmill World continues to describe the site as house converted. The known history of Bannister's Mill is therefore concentrated in its identification as a Sawtry smock corn mill and in the twentieth-century survival of fabric after its working life had ended.
Timeline
1778
Smock mill recorded
The Sawtry smock mill is recorded from 1778 in the Cambridgeshire windmill list.
1946
Disused mill photographed
The mill was photographed disused with its cap in September 1946.
1972
Derelict fabric recorded
A. C. Smith photographed the derelict mill with windshaft and brakewheel in September 1972.
1976
House conversion recorded
The former mill was photographed as a house-converted tower with a conical roof in August 1976.
Sources and records
Windmill World site entry
Mills Archive mill record
English Windmills Photographic Register
List of windmills in Cambridgeshire
Mills Archive mill record
English Windmills Photographic Register
List of windmills in Cambridgeshire