mill

Windmills at Harby

The maps of the village tell us that the earliest record is of a mill on the high ground on left hand side on the road to Hose. This is shown in the 1777 map produced by John Prior . The 1884 Ordnance Survey map (click here) shows this mill and also a mill at Langar Bridge on the north of the village and at Colston Bridge no doubt positioned at these points to allow easy movement of the grain before and after the milling process by both water and road. The 1904 Ordnance Survey map (click here) shows only the Colston Bridge mill remaining.

The census returns and the trade directories (click here) give us excellent details of the names of those employed at the mills.

There are half a dozen or more early photographs of the mill but so far all show the Colston Bridge building (click here). This tower mill was the finest in the county, and was rated as one of the finest in Britain. It is very sad that all that is left is the stump. It was built in 1828 adjacent to the Grantham Canal, which it no doubt used to import wheat and transport the flour. Mr Braithwaite remembers selling his first wheat to this mill in about 1900 as his price was lower (allowing for transport costs) than the mill's normal source in Lincolnshire. The mill ceased to make flour about 1916 due no doubt to Government rules introduced at that date. However, it continued to grind pig and poultry food. In the late 1930s the miller was Gideon Green, who worked for the owner Walter Stubbs. In 1937 the mill was bought by Mr Dickman and Mr Wolley - two big poultry and pig farmers who wished to mill their own feed, but they also supplied the other farmers, and soon had two millstones working full time. They replaced the cart with a lorry. They were soon doing a good trade and spent some money on the mill - putting up a new sail and painting it, Wakes and Lamb being the millwrights. However, in 1938 the fantail was in poor condition still and the blades broke allowing the mill to be tail-winded.

Mr Dickman tried to stop the mill (Gideon was on jury service) but there was nothing that could be done, and when the wind dropped the sails were wrecked. The owners did not repair the mill but sold it for scrap. Later, the building of the aerodrome at Langar mean the top floors were demolished, as the mill was now on the aerodrome approaches. This left the tower four stories high, and it is now a store. Nearby, against the Grantham Canal, are the remains of the steam mill building. The mill was seventy-three feet to the top of the ball finial. The brake wheel had iron spokes with a wooden rim bolted on to it.