CannyScot's Day

By CannyScot

John Webb Windmill, Thaxted

Overcast all day, very wet most of the time.

Not a day for going out - but plenty of excitement at the Games, on TV, with Table Tennis and Boxing.

Looking around for inspiration I thought of this wonderful photo of the Windmill in Thaxted, where we lived for eight years until we retired three years ago. I know it is a photo of a photo but it is my way of perhaps making this wonderful, working Mill more widely known.

Built in 1804, John Webb's Windmill is a tower mill and is the only remaining windmill in Thaxted. This windmill was the largest and most advanced of all the Thaxted mills and it worked for a hundred years. Built to satisfy a growing demand for flour at a time of agricultural expansion, it was constructed from local materials, with the bricks being made and fired half a mile away in the Chelmer valley. John Webb owned the farmland on which the mill was built.

The Mill fell into disrepair but has since had considerable amounts of money spent on restoring it to its present working condition. It is open Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays from Easter to the end of September.

Hope you might enjoy a visit some day.

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