Rayleigh Mill

Rayleigh Windmill was built in 1809 for Thomas Higgs, a timber merchant of Rayleigh. Higgs was bankrupt in 1815 and the mill was sold to William Hart of Woodham Mortimer in 1817. Hart sold the mill to George Britton in 1845 and the mill passed to his sons John and Samuel in 1869. £150 was spent putting the mill into repair. The Britton brothers left Rayleigh in 1884 and were bankrupt in 1886. Thomas James Brown was the next miller, and the last to work the mill by wind c1907. The cap and sails were removed c1909 then an oil engine and latterly by electric motor until at least 1937. The mill was taken over for use as a museum by Rayleigh and District Antiquarian and Natural History Society,…

Rayleigh Windmill is a six-storey tower mill with a Kentish cap winded by a six-bladed fantail. The mill had two single Spring sails and two Common sails carried on a cast-iron windshaft. The tower has no batter until second-floor level, where the stage is. The tower is 20 ft diameter at base level and 11 ft internal diameter at the curb. The brickwork is 4 ft thick at base level and at curb level it is thickened out to 3 ft. The mill is 60 ft high to the top of the cap. The mill drove three pairs of millstones.