Charing Windmill is a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

smock windmill, now converted to a house, on

Charing Charing () is a village and civil parish in the Ashford district of Kent, in south-east England. It includes the settlements of Charing Heath and Westwell Leacon. It is located at the foot of the North Downs and reaches up to the escarpment ...

Hill in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

in southeast England. It is sometimes known as Field Mill, but that name was also used by 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 mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...

in Charing.

History

Charing Mill was built in the early 19th century. It was marked on the 1819–43

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

map and also on Greenwood's 1821 map of Kent. It was working until 1891, when the business was transferred to Field Watermill, although two new common sails had been erected on the mill by Holman's of

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

the year before. The sails were removed in 1917 after being damaged in a gale.

Description

Charing Mill is a three-storey smock mill on a single-storey base. It has a Kentish-style cap. It had two common sails and two spring sails and was winded by a fantail. The

cast-iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

windshaft carries a wooden brake wheel driving a wooden wallower, carried on a wooden upright shaft. The wooden clasp arm great spur wheel survives, but the three pairs of millstones have been removed. The mill was originally painted white overall, but the body of the mill was creosoted in 1969.

Millers

*Thomas Parks 1823–1827 *Richard Chapman Jennings 1839 *A Sidders *S Andrews *Robert Millgate 1878 (Charing Heath windmill?) *Pay 1878–1892 (Field watermill?) *Pope 1878–1892 (Field watermill?) *William Smith *George Smith 1887 *Walter Hicks 1891

References

External links

Windmill World page
on the mill. {{Kent Windmills Buildings and structures completed in the 19th century Windmills in Kent Grinding mills in the United Kingdom Smock mills in England Grade II listed buildings in Kent Octagonal buildings in the United Kingdom