Great Gransden Windmill On Track To Come Off The Heritage at Risk Register
A major repair programme is well underway at Great Gransden windmill in Cambridgeshire. The work will help to restore the windmill - one of the oldest in the country - to its former glory. As most of the machinery survives, it could one day be returned to a functioning state.
Historic England have joined the WREN Heritage Fund and Cambridgeshire County Council (who own the mill) to fund the work, which is being carried out by a specialist millwright. When the current repairs are complete, the mill will be leased to an enthusiastic local trust that will look after the mill and provide regular public access. We look forward to that and to the mill eventually coming off our Heritage at Risk register.
Gransden Mill is of a simple type called a 'post mill', where the whole building, standing on a thick post, is turned to face the wind. Mills like this were once a common sight across the English landscape but there are now only a handful of precious survivors.
A mill has stood on the site since the 13th century and parts of the existing structure date to the early 17th century. The mill stopped working only 100 years ago, when it was already in a poor state of repair. Repairs were carried out in the 1970s and 1980s, but its condition has deteriorated seriously since then. Historic England put Gransden Mill on the national Heritage at Risk register which lists the most important buildings and monuments that are under threat so that we can give priority to saving treasures like this.
