Creeting St Mary Windmill is a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

dovecote A dovecote or dovecot , doocot ( Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pige ...

Creeting St Mary Creeting St Mary is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Sandwiched between the A14 and A140 to the north of Needham Market, the parish also includes the hamlet of Creeting Bottoms. In 2005 the p ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, England which has been restored. It was originally the body of a

post mill The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. Its defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. All p ...

which stood elsewhere in the village.

History

Creeting St Mary windmill was built in 1796 at . The mill was dismantled c1860, and the body was moved to the grounds of the medieval hall known as Houghton Park Farm, no
The Old Hall
The Mill was part of the complex of outbuildings, which later became Alder Carr Farm. The mill had Patent sails, which were transferred to a tower mill at Kersey when the mill was dismantled. It served for many years as a dovecote. It is the only such example of a reused windmill buck remaining in the country. The building was derelict by the late 1970s but was restored in 1995, and moved to a new position on the farm, converted to a craft workshop. The buck retains all its original framing.

Description

Creeting St Mary Windmill was a post mill with four ''Patent sails''.

Public access

Alder Carr Farm is open every day 9:00 to 17:00 except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. The mill building is currently home to Halfpenny Home Haberdashery and all areas are open to the public Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 to 16:00 and after Easter also on Sundays from 10:00 to 16:00.

References

{{Windmills in England Windmills in Suffolk Post mills in the United Kingdom Windmills completed in 1796 Grinding mills in the United Kingdom Grade II listed buildings in Suffolk Grade II listed windmills Creeting St Mary 1796 establishments in England