The location of former Windmills in Belchamp Walter

The Windmills of Belchamp Walter

The page on Wikipedia lists the sites of 3 windmills. Only one has any remains as far as I can determine. This is Cottonbury Mill on the road to North End past Puttocks End.

The base of Cottonbury Mill is on the grounds of a dwelling called Mill Cottage (on the OS map) between Hopkins Farm and Northey's Farm.

The photograph used on this page is of the post mill at Bocking, a similar type of windmill to that was Cottonbury.

Name/Location	Type	First seen on map	Last Seen	Fate, demise more information
Cottonbury Mill TL 798 365	Post	1777	1777	1883, demolished by 1893. Converted to bakery Trestle inside remaining roundhouse
TL 808 398	Unknown		1560	1560
Orbell's Mill TL 825 409	Unknown	1805	1805	1832 - (demolished?) Mill was located near the current Mill Cottage

Image of part of the table from the Wikipedia page: - (list of windmills in Essex)

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Another windmill, according to the OS grid reference is on the grounds of Princes Hall.

The third windmill, of which there are no remains, Orbell's Mill, was situated near to Mill Cottage on Hall road (Hence the name of the cottage - not to be confused with the Mill Cottage between Hopkins Farm and Northey's Farm mentioned above). This is also not to be confused with Mill House which is adjacent to Belchamp Water Mill, (Lovejoy's/Belchamp Mill) which is past the church on Hall road.

The dates in the table above

The WikiPedia page, "List of windmills in Essex" is quite large. I have "pulled" the section relating directly to Belchamp Walter. The columns, from left to right, are the date of the map that the mill appeared, the date of the mills first mention and the date of its last or its demise or fate.

This information is sparce. This is probably due to the enormity of the task of creating the WikiPedia table. There are more references at the bottom of the Wikipedia page, but this page is an example of my point of view on WikiPedia in general. However, it has given me the basis on understanding why some of the local buildings are named as they are and I am in the process of looking for maps that show these mills.

This page is part of an on-going research project on the history of Belchamp Walter and the manor of Belchamp Walter. If you have found it making a web search looking for geneological or other information on the village then please bookmark this page and return often as I am likely to make regular updates. If you delve deeper into this website you will find many other pages similar to this one.

Mill Type

The mill type for Cottonbury Mill is "Post". See the WikiP page for more information on this. The other types are "Smock" and "Tower"

Maps

I found that a good source of on-line maps is The National Library of Scotland. I referenced an OS map from 1862 on my main Belchamp Walter page. The National Library map shows the location of the Belchamp Walter water mill.

Below is an OS map from 1862.

Orbell's Mill

The current owner of Mill Cottage, the location of Orbell's Mill, has indicated that he would like to find a photograph of the windmill that his house is named for. The problem with this is that photography only came into popular use after the mill was demolished or fell into demise in 1832. Nicéphore Niépce is credited with the invention of photography in 1822.

Bocking Mill

" The windmill is a post mill with a two-story roundhouse and has been in Church Street Bocking since 1721. It was moved 200 yards up the hill to its present site in 1829 by John English Tabor. It was valued at £270, £208 of this was to repay a debt owing to Tabor.

The mill was worked until 1929 when it was presented to Bocking Parish Council by Mr Edward Tabor.

Then it gradually fell into disrepair until 1962-3 when it was restored partly by public subscription and partly by Braintree and Bocking UDC.

The Friends of Bocking Windmill was formed at that time and has continued to open the mill to the public until the present day.

In 2017 Braintree District Council became responsible for the opening of the Mill with the friends becoming volunteers.
In 2019 Millwright Bill Griffiths carried out a re-paint of the Mill exterior and further repairs "

Cottonbury

As Cottonbury Mill was demolished in 1777, according to the Wikipedia page, it is unlikely that there are any photographs of the mill when it was working.

The picture on this page is of Bocking Post Mill, which is a similar type and is included as an example of that type of mill. Sadly many of the mills have not been photographed, there are some photographs of the Boxford Smock Mill on the Boxford website.

The Windmills of Belchamp Walter

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