Whickham windmill

Described as new in 1720, the windmill is not mentioned after 1828 and had been long since dismantled by 1893. In a field which came to be a park called The Chase, bought by Whickham UDC in 1937 for public use, a stone tower mill of 3 storeys stands on a low mound of colliery shale 15 metres across. It survives to a height of 10.25 metres, 6 metres in diameter, with walls 0.80 metre thick. The lower three-quarters of the mill are of coursed sandstone rubble; above is of ashlar, so probably a later addition. Between the upper storeys, externally, is a circle of c. 13 sockets for the beams which presumably supported a projecting platform. All external openings and sockets are blocked. There are also beam-holes and recesses inside, some perhaps for the wooden stair recorded in 1937. Once attached to the mill were a dwelling house, drying kiln, a possible stable and 1+ acre of land. There are a number of early references to Whickham mill but its later history is not well known. A mill is mentioned in the receiver's roll of 1307. Similarly it is referred to in documentation in 1567. Local lore has it that when the Scots invaded Northumberland and Durham in 1640 at harvest time, crops were destroyed, the people fled and the upper millstones were broken or buried by order. The existing tower would seem to date from a later structure. LISTED GRADE 2