Davison's Mill, Stelling Minnis

Davison's Mill was built in 1866 by the Canterbury millwright Thomas Holman, replacing an earlier open trestle post mill with common sails. Milling by wind ceased in 1925, but the mill continued to work by a Ruston & Hornsby oil engine which had been added in 1923. In April 1935, the mill was restored to full working order. The work was financed by H Laurie, as a memorial to her brother Colonel Ronald Macdonald Laurie, who had died on 21 October 1927. One pair of sails was blown off in the early 1950s, and the mill worked afterwards with a single pair, assisted by the engine. When Alec Davison retired in the autumn of 1970, the mill was the last in Kent working commercially by wind. After…

Davison's Mill is a four-storey smock mill with a stage at first-floor level. It is built on a low brick base only 14 in high. The mill is 43 ft tall to the top of the cap. It has four patent sails carried on a cast-iron windshaft. The mill is winded by a fantail. The mill drives two pairs of millstones underdrift. The Brake wheel is iron. This drives a cast-iron Wallower. The Great Spur Wheel is also of cast iron. The engine is a Ruston & Hornsby "1912" hot-bulb engine, which was despatched from Holman's in Canterbury on 7 May 1923.