Water was probably the earliest form of power used for milling. A Roman mill has been excavated at Ickham near Canterbury and the well-preserved timbers of an Anglo-Saxon horizontal watermill, dating to about AD 700, were uncovered at Ebbsfleet near Gravesend. In 1086, the Domesday Survey named over 300 mills in Kent.
The more complicated mechanism of harnessing the wind may have been introduced into Britain by the Crusaders, returning from the Holy Land from the twelfth century onwards. Medieval manuscripts, carved representations and stained glass reveal details of what these early, small mills looked like.
By 1400 there were some ten thousand windmills in England, mostly in the drier areas of Kent, East Anglia and Sussex, where wheat was widely grown. When a mill was built, the landowner, usually the local lord of the manor, but sometimes a church or monastic holding, could have been issued with 'soke rights'. These ensured a monopoly of control over milling and its profits, as part of each manor's charter. Tenants were obliged to have their corn ground at the lord's mill and paid a proportion of their grain, often a sixteenth, as a charge. Milling soke in Kent, however, may not have been applied as widely as elsewhere, perhaps due to the scattered nature of manorial property and the large proportion of freehold tenants.
Nonetheless, unmade roads and the difficulty of transportation meant that practically every village had at least one mill, driven either by wind or by water.
Though doubtless most millers were honest and hard-working, they tended to get a bad name for taking excessive quantities of corn or flour as payment for grinding.
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales describes the miller in the Miller's Tale as having 'a thombe of golde', an ironic comment referring to the practice of pressing his thumb heavily on the scales to increase the weight and therefore the price he charged. By the end of the fifteenth century, the social fabric of country communities was changing. The feudal system, employing payment in kind, had been replaced by one using money. Monetary payment to millers, rather than in goods, was made compulsory by law in 1796, and mills were required to display their prices.
The first 'complete' record of mills in Kent is on a map of 1596 by Philip Symonson. Thirty-nine mills are shown, with a concentration on the fertile grain-growing areas of the Isle of Thanet, Romney Marsh, Deal and Sandwich. Later maps of the seventeenth century mainly show this east-coast focus continuing, although the number of Romney Marsh mills gradually declined as people left the area and the land was given over to sheep pasture. In north Kent, few mills are depicted, even though wheat was also grown here. This may reflect the ease with which grain could be transported from here via Watling Street to mills in the east, or to north-western Kent, where plentiful streams powered many watermills. The central Weald of Kent, initially densely wooded and sparsely populated, had only two windmills shown on Symonson's map, but clearance and subsequent farming led to an increase here by the eighteenth century. This fact, and the appearance of more windmills east of the lower Medway and in the areas of north Kent with large port populations, meant that more than two hundred mills worked in Kent during the earlier nineteenth century.
This was the heyday of windmills, when the development of the iron-founding industry improved their machinery, and windpower was used extensively to irrigate crops or drain marshland, in addition to milling grain. So important were the mills that in 1809, a special licence was granted to import burr millstones from France (see glossary) despite the conflict with Napoleon. By the end of the century, windmills were in decline for a combination of reasons. The growth of urban conglomerations saw depopulation of the countryside; grain was imported in bulk from Canada, America and Australia and large mills were built at ports to provide instant processing; sources of power, such as steam, electricity and the internal combustion engine, were superseding erratic and unpredictable windpower. Some millers installed auxiliary power sources, to supplement, and in some cases supplant, the wind. The white flour produced by the dockside mills was preferred to the wholemeal ground by the local mill (how perceptions have changed!), and animal foodstuffs became the main product of most mills.
By the end of the First World War, only around 350 windmills were still working in England.
Writing in the 1930s, mill historian William Coles-Finch catalogued over 400 windmills that had existed in Kent at various times since the sixteenth century, but noted only seventy still standing, and of these, only fifteen still using windpower.
Early mills were all 'post' mills, a type of construction in which the whole body of the mill, with its interior machinery, was mounted on top of a stout post, about which it swivelled to allow the miller to set his sweeps to face the wind (the sails of Kentish mills are always referred to as sweeps). The post and its supporting trestle was commonly embedded in the ground to prevent it blowing over. Often the mill was built on a mound, raising the sweeps into stronger wind flow, thereby improving grinding capacity. A number of later mills still stand on these old mounds, as at Stelling Minnis. Here, the surviving smock mill is the last in a succession of mills on the same mound. Larger and heavier post mills were made more secure and less likely to suffer rot by placing them on brick piers, as may still be seen today at Chillenden, an 'open-trestle' mill where the post is exposed to the elements, or at Wittersham, where the trestle is enclosed in a 'round house'.
Post mills were turned to face the wind by manually pushing on the 'tail pole' protruding behind the mill. The miller had to be available to turn the mill whenever the wind changed at any time of day or night. If he failed, the mill could be severely damaged and his livelihood gone. Developments from the fourteenth century onwards produced a new, more efficient, form of mill, needing less effort. Tower mills of stone or brick, and the smaller timber weatherboarded smock mills, had a fixed circular, octagonal or hexagonal body, topped with a cap and sweeps that could be turned toward the wind. These new forms, often with several floors, provided more space for millstones, grain cleaners, flour sieves and other equipment and permitted the sweeps to be larger, higher and therefore more powerful. No working tower mills remain in Kent today, those that still stand being converted into houses or derelict.
The smock mill, a Dutch introduction for fenland drainage, was quickly adopted in Kent where there was a plentiful supply of timber.
Smock and tower mills in Kent (and Sussex) have easily distinguishable caps that resemble the cut-off roof of a post mill. The fantail was invented in 1745. It acted a little like a weathervane, being connected to a system of shafts and gears, enabling the cap to turn automatically to face the wind. Some mills, however, still had to be turned by the miller. An example of a fantail being added during the life of a mill is at Cranbrook, where it took the place of the T wheel and 'endless-chain' system.
Early windmill sweeps were 'commons', with canvas sail cloths spread over their skeleton of wooden ribs. Andrew Meikle, a Scottish engineer, invented a new type of sail in 1771, comprising a series of shutters, reminiscent of the slats of a Venetian blind. By connecting the shutters of each sweep to a spring, they would automatically open to 'spill' wind during gusty periods, to prevent the mill from going too fast. William Cubitt improved the design in 1807 by connecting all the shutters to a weighted chain that hung at the back of the cap, also allowing them to blow open in high winds. All three types of sweep were in use up to the time when windmills ceased to operate commercially; some windmills even had two pairs of shutters with different systems.
Millstones too, came in different types, the commonest being French burr (mentioned above) and millstone grit from Yorkshire. 'Dressing' the stones meant recutting the pattern of grooves, called furrows, worn down by the grinding action. Some millers knew how to dress their own stones, but otherwise they employed stonedressers, itinerant workers who travelled around the countryside. Millers signalled their need of a stonedresser by setting their sweeps in the St George's cross position, but they could be suspicious of any unknown arrivals. The stonedresser would be asked to 'show us your metal', a phrase still used today when wanting to see someone's worth. Rolling up his sleeves, the dresser would expose forearms and hands marked by embedded particles breaking off as sparks from the 'mill bill', the heavy metal tool used to cut the pattern.
Another phrase originating from milling terms is 'you'll never set the Thames alight!'. This is a misspelling of the original 'temse', the earliest type of dressing machine, used to separate out different grades of flour. A wooden-framed sieve slid along wooden supports and was worked manually, usually by the miller's boy, who would be berated for not working fast enough. Rubbing pieces of wood together rapidly, can of course, cause sparks; hence 'you'll never set the temse alight'.
Although these historic windmills can never be run profitably, renewed interest in windpower has led to new structures that harness the wind. The small seaward-facing windows of Herne Mill frame a view of a windfarm, five miles out to sea. The enormous white sails of each turbine witness a continuity of purpose in the ever-changing landscape of Kent.
More information
If you are interested in windmills or watermills, here are some other sources of information:
Information about Kent County Council's windmills is online at www.kent.gov.uk/windmills.
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) has a Mills Section, which campaigns for the protection and restoration of mills. SPAB is a registered charity, no: 231307.
They are online at www.spab.org.uk/mills.
Mills Section
SPAB
37 Spital Square
London
E1 6DY
Tel: 020 7456 0909
Email: millsinfo@spab.org.uk
The Mills Archive is a centralised archive and resource library that allows users to store and retrieve information and records about traditional mills and milling.
They are online at: www.millsarchive.com.
The Mills Archive Trust
Watlington House
44 Watlington Street
Reading
RG1 4RJ
Email: info@millsarchive.com
Many books have been written on mills. This list includes some books written a long time ago and no longer in print, but if you are lucky enough to come across a copy, they are well worth reading. You should be aware, however, that some of the information in them may be inaccurate and out of date!
Beedell, S Windmills. David & Charles 1975.
A very good introduction to the origins, construction and working of windmills in England and abroad, with many references to Kent.
Batten, M. I. English Windmills Vol 1, Kent, Surrey and Sussex AP 1930.
A useful assessment of the early history of mills in the south-east, but out of date in respect of the current situation.
Brown. R J. Windmills of England. Hale 1976.
Covers the origins and design of mills and describes and illustrates those existing in 1976.
Coles Finch, W. Watermills and Windmills. C.W. Daniel & Co 1933 (reprinted 1976).
Should not be depended upon for factual information, but full of recorded memories and photos of days long gone.
Freeze, S. Windmills and Millwrighting. David and Charles 1974.
Technically very useful, describing extensive mill repairs.
DeLittle, R. The Windmill. John Baker 1972.
A short account and history of mills including photographs of their declining years.
Reynolds, J Windmills and Watermills Hugh Evelyn 1974.
A very comprehensive and well-illustrated history of all mill types.
Shillingford. A.E.P. Vanishing Windmills. Cave 1979.
Contains description of structure, machinery and mill types, with a glossary and gazetteer. Well illustrated, but the text is out of date.
Thurston Hopkins. R. Old Watermills and Windmills. Allan 1939.
A general history, extensively illustrated.
Turpin B. and J. Windmills in Kent. Windmill Publications 1979.
A small illustrated booklet describing the windmills of Kent.
Vince. J. Discovering Windmills. Shire 1993.
A very useful pocket book of information.
Vince. J. Windmills & How They Work. Sorbus 1993.
A very useful pocket book of information.
Wailes. R. Windmills and Watermills. Ward Lock 1979.
A useful pocket-size source book for all types of mills.
Wailes. R. Windmills in England. Charles Skilton 1948.
An old, but historically valuable, record of English windmills.
Watts. M. The Archaeology of Mills and Milling. Tempus 2002.
Deals with the early development of wind and watermills throughout the world and includes British examples from early times.
West. The Windmills of Kent. Charles Skilton 1973.
The most recent book covering Kent but in need of updating.