Haddenham Mill Haddenham · Cambridgeshire · England

Haddenham Mill stands on Aldreth Road and is also known as Great Mill. It is a brick tower windmill dating from 1803 and was built for Daniel Cockle. The mill represents a late stage of wind-powered corn milling in Cambridgeshire, with a substantial brick tower and an internal machinery layout designed for powered flour production before steam-powered roller milling became dominant later in the nineteenth century.

The Cockle family operated the mill, followed by successive owners, until shortly after the end of the Second World War. After milling ceased the building remained unused and unmaintained. Its decline was a gradual loss of working fabric: the sails were blown off in 1969, and the cap and fantail later collapsed. The remains of the cap were removed in 1981, when a temporary roof was erected to protect the tower and surviving interior.

Restoration began in May 1992 after the mill site was bought by owners intending to restore it. Repairs were made to the upper brickwork and curb, and in December 1994 a new cap and skeleton fantail were fitted by Thompson of Alford, Lincolnshire. The stocks and sail frames were reinstated in March 1995. Further fundraising allowed the completion of sail equipment and replacement of damaged machinery, including the brake wheel and wallower. The restoration was completed in 1998.

The tower is four storeys high and built of red and Gault brick, with part rendering. The restored cap carries a six-sail fantail, and the mill has four double-shuttered sails. An external iron drive wheel allowed the mill to be powered by a mobile steam engine when wind was insufficient. Internally the mill retains much original machinery, including three sets of underdrift stones, governor mechanisms, a friction sack hoist, bolter, vertical smutter, flour dresser, upright shaft, and associated gearing. Haddenham Mill is listed at Grade II and remains a major surviving example of Cambridgeshire tower-mill engineering.