Heckington Windmill

The five-armed sail-cross drove three pairs of stones and milled grain for over 60 years. But Hare died before August 1834, and the mill owner's widow, Ann Hare (née Bonner) (1807-1879), was left with two young children, one a son (James b. 1831), she then married a local miller Sleightholme Nash (1769-1847) around 1836. The mill eventually passed to Joseph Nash (Sleightholme Nash's son by an earlier marriage) who became its last miller before its destruction in 1890. A tail-wind made the sails run backwards after the destruction of the fantail by lightning leaving the cap rotating uncontrolled, blew off the entire cap with the curb smashing it with parts of the upper gear and all five…

It was built in 1830 for Michael Hare to plans by millwright Edward Ingledew who also built, among others, Wragby tower mill in 1831, Waltham Windmill in 1837, and the former Pickworth tower mill. The tower is of red brick, the outer walls being tarred (provided with a black bitumen paint in order to keep moisture out). It was built as a five-sailed windmill (similar to Alford Windmill) with Sutton's single patent sails (15 feet tip-width and 12 feet heel-width) providing longitudinal shutters on both sides of the backs (36 feet in length). The mill has six storeys called "floors": ground floor, meal floor, stone (stage) floor, lower bin floor, upper bin floor (hoist floor), dust or cap…