West Winch Windmill West Winch · Norfolk · England

West Winch Windmill stands on the east side of the road north of West Winch village. Francis Plumpton built the tarred red-brick tower mill around 1821 after buying land and a house from Thomas Begley in 1818. The five-storey tower stood 42 feet to the curb and had an iron stage around the second floor.

The vertically boarded ogee cap formed a petticoat and carried a gallery and six-bladed fantail. The cap drained rainwater into a gutter and holding tank used to feed the steam engine. Machinery recorded in the 1970s included an eight-armed brake wheel, an iron windshaft, cast-iron great spur wheel, stone nuts, bolter gearing and French burr stones.

The mill was advertised in 1871 as a brick tower windmill in full trade with fantail, four pressure sails, three pairs of stones, a baker's oven, dwelling house, garden and orchard. A bake office was already running on the site by 1861. The working life ended in 1937 after Ernest Robert Kerrison was killed in the mill machinery.

The structure became derelict over the following decades. Restoration work began in 1975, the old cap was removed, and a new cap with working six-bladed fantail was fitted in 1977. The mill later became a private residence, although later records note that the cap was again absent or awaiting repair.