Oldest brick tower windmill still spinning after 250 years

By Charlie Fenton

Britain's oldest brick tower windmill, which sits in the middle of a housing estate is still spinning over 250 years after it was built.

Located in Holgate, York, North Yorkshire, Holgate Windmill has been working since 1770 after being built by George Waud, from Selby, North Yorks., after he bought the land on December 27 1768.

The mill - which grinds corn to make flour - was built in open countryside looking over the hamlet of Holgate and was one of many mills in the Yorkshire region.

The 90-foot-tall mill now sits on a roundabout in the middle of a housing estate which was built in the 1940s and 50s post World War Two.

Three generations of the Waud family ran the mill until it was sold in 1851 to John Musham, a local gentleman, - it was run by a tenant miller John Thackwray from Boston Spa, in Leeds, West Yorks.

Musham then sold the mill in 1855 to Joseph Peart who installed a steam engine which worked the milling gear and employed William Bean Horseman and later Joseph Chapman as millers.

After Peart's death 1864 it's unknown who owned the mill but in 1877 Eliza Gutch, from the Gutch family, took it over.

Chapman continued running it after Peart's death until he retired to Scarbough.

It was then taken over by his son Charles but only until 1901 as he died young after breathing in hazardous flour dust.

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It is then known Herbert Warters ran the mill from 1901 to 1922 and was followed by Thomas Mollett.

The windmill continued production until the 1930’s using wind power and with the aid of electric motors until it stopped entirely in 1933.

The Gutch family sold the Mill to York Corporation - now known as York City Council - in 1939 after Eliza died.

There were several attempts to restore the Mill - some works did take place - but it became neglected as the housing estate grew around it following WW2.

In 2001 the Holgate Windmill Preservation Society was formed who successfully restored the mill to its former self in 2012 after almost a century.

Steve Potts, 69, trustee and lead miller of the society, said: "It is an important building.

"Of all of the hundreds of windmills which which were once found around Yorkshire, this is the only working one left.

"We are a group of 35 volunteers and we think it is important to keep the industry of milling going.

"It is a dying art in many ways and if we weren't doing it, in a couple of years there may be no one left who knows how to.

"Our plan is to keep it's legacy going forever."

You can buy wholemeal flour produced by volunteers the windmill at a number of shops in the surrounding area.