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Bursledon Windmill

 

Bursledon Windmill is a wind powered corn mill. It has been lovingly restored to full working order. A traditional timber framed barn and a granary have been reconstructed on the site together with a farm pond to provide a superb example of Hampshire's rural heritage.
 


An attractive woodland habitat next to the mill supports a wide range of wildlife.

Bursledon Windmill is signposted from junction 8 on the M27. Follow the signs from the motorway to the roundabout and take first left onto the A27. Windmill Lane is the first on the left.

The first windmill was built on this site in 1766-1767 by William Fry. Some of its wooden machinery was incorporated in the present mill, which was built during 1813-14 at a cost of about £800.

A Mrs Phoebe Langtry was responsible for its construction, and her son William was miller for many years.

The Windmill formed a part of the 'golden years' of English agricultural prosperity in the mid 19th century processing wheat from the surrounding area into flour for local bakers, ships biscuits and household use, and making animal feed from locally grown barley and oats. It last worked in the late 1880s.

Like many other windmills, it was made redundant by major changes in flour milling technology. This coincided with a prolonged depression in agriculture which began in the late 1870s, and Bursledon Windmill was an early casualty of the period. Major repairs were needed, but it was no longer worthwhile to undertake them. After the 1880s the mill fell into disrepair.

The last miller was a George Gosling, who bought the Windmill in 1872 and set up as a threshing contractor. His decision to replace the cap with a flat roof preserved the internal machinery long after the stocks and sails had been removed.

 


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