Drapers Windmill - Margate, Kent, CT9 2SP. - Windmills on Waymarking.com

Drapers Mill, built in 1845, is a four storey smock mill on a single storey brick built base with a stage at first floor level, and is the only survivor of a line of 3 windmills which once graced this high point. It has four double patent sails of 26 feet 6 inches (8.08m) long and 6 feet 6 inches (1.98m) wide, spanning 66 feet (20.12m) and they are carried on a cast iron windshaft. The mill is winded by a fantail and the brake wheel is 8 feet 6 inches (2.59m) in diameter. 3 pairs of millstones are driven overdrift.

Canterbury millwright, John Holman, built the mill and owned it until his death in 1855. His tenant from 1847 was John Banks, miller until 1866. The company F&E Darby followed in the late 1860's and Thomas Ind from 1870. Thomas Ind was a colourful figure who had worked in the Baptist Ministry in Iowa and farmed in Illinois. After his death in 1899, the mill and associated properties were bought by a local charity, the Michael Yoakley Trust, but by 1925 the Margate Bakery Company owned the mill.

Steam power supplemented the wind during the early twentieth century. The sweeps (a Kent word for sails) and fantail, however, were deemed unsafe and were removed in 1927. A 20hp gas engine then powered the mill until the mid 1930's when it ceased grinding altogether. The mill became a depot for the distribution of animal feeds, coal and corn by various local companies. The mill's last commercial use was as Miss Hart's tuck shop, much visited by children from the nearby school.

Once abandoned, the structure deteriorated until little remained of its former glory. The mill's rescuer was Mr Towes, headmaster at the school, who initiated Draper's Mill Trust in 1965. He worked with colleagues to raise funds, holding an annual Windmill Fair. Kent County Council acquired the mill in 1968, and restoration included new sweeps and stage and much of the weatherboarding. Work was completed in 1975 and Drapers once again turned to grind corn. A recent grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund has seen repair of the cap and smock and rebuilding of the sweeps.

Drapers is lucky to have much of its original machinery and some of the original outbuildings intact. A Crossley gas engine, similar to the original, was donated to the Trust and with help from the European 'Interreg' project, restored to working order in 2007. Drapers Windmill is also twinned with the Moulin Tellier windmill in the Somme region of France.

For contact and opening time details, the Drapers Mill Trust website is here.

Date of Manufacture: 01/01/1845 Purpose: Milling Open to the public: yes Is This Windmill Functional?: Yes! Windmill Farm: no Cost: 0.00 (listed in local currency) Museum on Site: yes

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