Qualla: Wimbledon Windmill

Wimbledon Windmill: Introduction

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ian Howard, CC BY 2.5. John Watney's request to build a windmill on Wimbledon Common was turned down in 1799 because he could not be bothered to produce the plans. Sixteen years later, a Roehampton carpenter named Charles March tried again, with proper drawings this time, and got his permission. The mill that went up in 1817 has been milling, ceasing to mill, decaying, restored, recamouflaged for war, restored again, and finally turned into a small but stubborn museum - all while standing on the same patch of windswept common land for more than two hundred years.

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Image: Ian Howard | CC BY 2.5

Wimbledon Windmill: An Unusual Design Choice

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mark Pepall, CC BY-SA 2.0. March chose a hollow post mill, an uncommon design even at the time. In a hollow post mill the entire upper structure rotates on a single central post, and the drive shaft running down to the millstones passes through the hollow centre of that post. It is an elegant trick, but a ...

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Image: Mark Pepall | CC BY-SA 2.0

Wimbledon Windmill: The Common Fights Back

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter Mason, CC BY-SA 4.0. Earl Spencer's enclosure scheme did not go down well with the locals. They organised, lobbied, and pushed the Wimbledon and Putney Commons Act through Parliament in 1871, wresting the common away from aristocratic appetite and placing it under elected and appointed conservators. ...

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Image: Peter Mason | CC BY-SA 4.0

Wimbledon Windmill: The War and the Quiet Years

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Marathon, CC BY-SA 2.0. During the Second World War the mill was painted drab green to make it less visible from the air, and one of its sails was removed to break up its silhouette. Army camps had been pitched on Wimbledon Common and the mill was a navigation landmark too useful to enemy bombers. The c...

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Image: Marathon | CC BY-SA 2.0

Wimbledon Windmill: Inside the Octagon

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stevekeiretsu, CC BY-SA 3.0. Today the windmill rises from a two-storey brick octagon, with a conical wooden tower above housing the mechanism the Sandersons installed. The cast-iron windshaft turns four double patent sails, automatic shutters that open and close with the wind. A six-foot brake wheel with ab...

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Image: Stevekeiretsu | CC BY-SA 3.0

Wimbledon Windmill: Cameos and Cuckoos

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Au Morandarte, CC BY-SA 2.0. The mill has had its moments on screen. It appears in the 1952 British film Hammer the Toff and turns up briefly in Hoffman, the strange 1970 Peter Sellers picture in which Sellers plays a creepy office-worker holding a young woman hostage. The mill is just there in the backgroun...

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Image: Au Morandarte | CC BY-SA 2.0