Little Marton Mill is a 19th-century English

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

windmill A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications, in some ...

in Marton, now part of Blackpool, Lancashire. It was built in 1838 by John Hays for grinding corn, and worked until 1928. It has been designated a Grade II

listed building 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 ...

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

History and assessment

Little Marton Mill was built in 1838 by millwright John Hays for John Whalley, on the site of a previous mill. It was once one of several

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

s in the area, and is the last remaining of perhaps four mills that once stood within the current boundaries of Blackpool. The

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of Little Marton was part of the

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

of Marton which, by the end of the 19th century, was incorporated into Blackpool and St Anne's-on-the-Sea. Marton had a

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...

until the mid-18th century, and another wind-powered gristmill up to the late 19th century, both at Great Marton. Little Marton Mill was later worked by a miller named Cornelius Bagot. It stopped working in September 1928. Bagot restored the mill and in 1937 gave it to the Allen Clarke Memorial Fund as a memorial to local teacher, writer and windmill enthusiast C. Allen Clarke (1863–1935). The mill was extensively renovated in 1987 at a cost of £88,000. The mill is now open on Sundays to members of the public to visit and features demonstrations and information from volunteers about the milling process and its history. Little Marton Mill is situated on a green, close to the

M55 motorway The M55 is a motorway in Lancashire, England, which can also be referred to as the Preston Northern Bypass. It connects the seaside resort of Blackpool to the M6 at Preston. It is 12.2 miles (19.6 km) in length. One mile was originally ...

and is a familiar landmark on this major route into the seaside resort.

designated the windmill a Grade II

on 20 October 1983. The Grade II designation—the lowest of the three grades—is for buildings that are "nationally important and of special interest". In April 2023, one of the mill's sails fell off and a second was loosened during high winds.

Blackpool Council Blackpool Council is the local authority of the Borough of Blackpool, Lancashire, England. It is a unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additiona ...

stated that a survey would be undertaken to assess the damage.

Structure

Little Marton Mill is of a typical style for windmills built in

the Fylde The Fylde () is a coastal plain in western Lancashire, England. It is roughly a square-shaped peninsula, bounded by Morecambe Bay to the north, the Ribble estuary to the south, the Irish Sea to the west, and the foot of the Bowland hills ...

. On four storeys (including a basement), it has a circular plan and a broad base in proportion to its height. It is constructed of stuccoed, whitewashed brick. On the exterior wall there is a commemorative plaque to local writer Allen Clarke. The mill is entered through double doors (at basement level) to the east, and a single door to the west. There are square windows at the first, second and third storeys. Typically for Fylde windmills, the cap (replaced in 1987) is boat-shaped. There are four sails and a

fantail Fantails are small insectivorous songbirds of the genus ''Rhipidura'' in the family Rhipiduridae, native to Australasia, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Most of the species are about long, specialist aerial feeders, and named as " ...

with eight blades. The machinery is incomplete, as some of it is now at

Lytham Windmill Lytham Windmill is situated on Lytham Green in the coastal town of Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, England. It is of the type known as a tower mill and was designed for grinding wheat and oats to make flour or bran. Since commercial milling on the si ...

References

;Footnotes ;Sources * * * *

External links

*
Friends of Little Marton Windmill
{{Use dmy dates, date=September 2013 Buildings and structures in Blackpool Grade II listed buildings in Lancashire Grade II listed windmills Windmills in Lancashire Tower mills in the United Kingdom Windmills completed in 1838

History and assessment

Structure

See also

References

External links