Metheringham Windmill Explained

Metheringham Windmill
Name Of Mill:Metheringham Windmill
Location Of Mill:Metheringham, Lincolnshire
Gbgridref:TF 063 613
Coordinates:53.1377°N -0.4116°W
Built:1867
Type:Tower mill
Storeys:Six storeys
Sail Number:Six sails
Sail Type:Patent sails
Windshaft:Cast iron
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. 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, but was never prosperous. 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, finishing her sixty years of work around 1930. Until 1942, the mill could be viewed with its unique three sails design.

In the following years the remaining sails went, and after 1961 cap and windshaft followed. The tar coating is now wearing off the tower, giving a free view of the unusual banding in her brickwork of 205 courses. 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.

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

References

Sources

. The Windmills of England . Rex Wailes . Routledge & Kegan Paul . London . 1954 .