Metheringham Windmill

Metheringham Windmill
Metheringham Windmill
	Disused windmill and Mill House at Metheringham
Origin
Mill name	Metheringham Windmill
Mill location	Metheringham, Lincolnshire
Grid reference	TF 063 613
Coordinates	53°08′16″N 0°24′42″W / 53.1377°N 0.4116°W
Year built	1867
Information
Type	Tower mill
Storeys	Six storeys
No. of sails	Six sails
Type of sails	Patent sails
Windshaft	Cast iron
No. of pairs of millstones	Four pairs

Metheringham Windmill, locally known as The Old Meg Flour Mill, was a six-storeyed, six-sailed, and tarred slender Lincolnshire type windmill with the typical white ogee cap and fantail. The mill is derelict.

History

Metheringham Windmill was built in 1867 to be used to grind flour from grain.^[1] Located on a paddock at the eponymous village in North Kesteven south of Lincoln, it is one of the many tall brick-tower mills of Lincolnshire with a stage, now disused.

The mill was equipped with a complete iron gear, six Sutton Patent sails, which drove her four pairs of millstones,^[1] but was never prosperous.^{[citation needed]} She later lost up to four of her sails, which were not replaced. The remaining sails were juggled around for balance. Having started with 6 sails, she later ran with four, then two, and finally with three,^[2] finishing her sixty years of work around 1930. Until 1942, the mill could be viewed with its unique three sails design.^[1]

In the following years the remaining sails went, and after 1961 cap and windshaft followed.^[1] The tar coating is now wearing off the tower, giving a free view of the unusual banding in her brickwork of 205 courses.^{[citation needed]} Remains of the iron stage can still be found on the mill on the second floor, but in a bad condition because of the damage done by sail crashes.^[1]

There is no public right of access to the mill, so any remains of machinery inside the mill can't be examined.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Dolman 1986, p. 22.
^ Wailes 1954, p. 100.

Sources

Dolman, Peter (1986). Lincolnshire Windmills, a contemporary survey. Lincoln: Lincolnshire County Council, Department of Recreational Services - Museums. ISBN 0 86111 126 5.
Wailes, Rex (1954). The Windmills of England. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.