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Site overview

Darthy's Mill at Walsham le Willows was a wind-powered post mill with a roundhouse. The round base is all that remains of the mill, which operated from at least 1817. The surviving structure stands within Postmill Gardens and represents the remaining solid evidence of one of the village's former windmills.

The base was later incorporated into a late twentieth-century housing development and used as a distinctive centrepiece.

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

Darby's Mill was one of the later windmills at Walsham le Willows. It was a post mill with a circular base and operated from at least 1817. The roundhouse formed the base of the mill and illustrates the construction method used to support a post mill.

The upper mill structure was later removed, leaving the round base as the surviving element. By the late twentieth century the former mill site had been incorporated into a housing development at Postmill Gardens. The round base survives as the visible remnant of Darby's Mill and as the main surviving physical reminder of the village's windmilling history.

Timeline

1817

Mill operating

Darby's Mill operated as a post mill at Walsham le Willows from at least this year.
1900–1999

Postmill Gardens development

The surviving round base was incorporated into a late twentieth-century housing development.
1917

Mill partly dismantled

The post mill was partly dismantled, leaving the round base as the main surviving element.

Sources and records

Walsham le Willows historic trail
Walsham le Willows Neighbourhood Plan non-designated heritage asset assessment
Suffolk Mills Group windmills gazetteer
Mills Archive catalogue entry
Windmill World site entry