Charing Windmill

Charing Windmill is a Grade II listed^[1] smock windmill, now converted to a house, on Charing Hill in Kent in southeast England. It is sometimes known as Field Mill, but that name was also used by a watermill in Charing.

Charing Windmill
The converted mill.
Origin
Mill name	Field Mill
Grid reference	TQ 957 503
Coordinates	51°13′1″N 0°48′8″E
Year built	Early nineteenth century
Information
Purpose	Corn milling
Type	Smock mill
Storeys	Three-storey smock
Base storeys	One storey
Smock sides	Eight-sided
No. of sails	Four
Type of sails	Two Common sails and two Spring sails
Windshaft	Cast iron
Winding	Fantail
Fantail blades	Six
No. of pairs of millstones	Three pairs
Other information	Was painted white when a working mill, tarred black since conversion to a house.

History

Charing Mill was built in the early 19th century. It was marked on the 1819–43 Ordnance Survey map and also on Greenwood's 1821 map of Kent. It was working until 1891, when the business was transferred to Field Watermill,^[2] although two new common sails had been erected on the mill by Holman's of Canterbury the year before. The sails were removed in 1917 after being damaged in a gale.^[3]

Description

For a description of the machinery, see Mill machinery.

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.^[3] The cast-iron 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.^[2] The mill was originally painted white overall, but the body of the mill was creosoted in 1969.^[4]

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^[2][3][5]