1820
Tower windmill built
The Windmill at Little Wilbraham was built around 1820 as a three-storey brick tower mill.
Site overview
The Windmill at Little Wilbraham is a Grade II listed tower windmill on Mill Lane. Built around 1820, it is a three-storey rendered brick tower mill now converted to residential use. The mill has a restored ogee cap, while the sails and fantail have been removed.
The listing records machinery surviving in the cap, preserving part of the working fabric of the former wind-powered mill. By the 1960s the building had been converted into a house, and later survey work recorded its external condition as sound. It remains a visible former windmill within the rural setting of Little Wilbraham.
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
The Windmill at Little Wilbraham stands on Mill Lane and is a former tower windmill of around 1820. It is built in rendered brick and rises through three storeys, with a restored ogee cap giving the building a recognisable windmill profile despite the removal of the sails and fantail.
The mill was later converted to residential use. By the 1960s the former working mill had become a house, while retaining enough historic fabric to be listed at Grade II in 1984. The listed description records that the openings are twentieth-century but that machinery in the cap remained intact. The survival of the cap machinery preserves a direct link with the building's former wind-powered function.
Later photographic records show the former windmill standing in its field-edge and village setting, and the Cambridgeshire mill condition survey recorded the exterior as sound. The site survives as a converted tower mill rather than as a working mill, retaining its place in the historic windmill landscape of Little Wilbraham.
Timeline
1960–1969
Converted to residential use
The former tower mill was converted into a house during the 1960s.
1984
Grade II listed building designation
The Windmill at Little Wilbraham was listed at Grade II.
2003
Converted windmill photographed
The converted former windmill was photographed on Mill Lane for the Images of England project.
Sources and records
Historic England listed building entry
Cambridgeshire Watermills and Windmills at Risk report
Windmill World site entry
Mills Archive site record
Historic England Archive Images of England photograph
Cambridgeshire Watermills and Windmills at Risk report
Windmill World site entry
Mills Archive site record
Historic England Archive Images of England photograph