Every Picture Tells a Story

The Waltham Windmill Preservation Society has been in existence since 1966. The members of the society have worked hard over the years to raise money for the upkeep of the windmill which stands six storeys high.

The site has been home to a number of mills for many hundreds of years and was used as a Home Guard look-out post during the Second World War. The chairman of the society is Dr. Peter Carter who is also the treasurer of the Lincolnshire Mills Group.

Dr. Carter was in general practice on the Nunsthorpe Estate for forty years and his retirement years are giving him the opportunity to bring something back to the community due to his interest in wind and water mills.

He joined the society a few months after its inauguration in 1966 and after attending a couple of meetings he was invited to become its chairman and has been so ever since. The windmill was in a poor state of repair, so much so that the three remaining sails had to be removed for safety reasons and the mill stood for many years without any sails until massive restoration work took place. It wasn't until 1982 that the first two
sails were put into place.

This history of windmills on the Waltham site spans a couple of centuries. There have been a number of mills on the site, one of which blew over. The present mill was completed in the late 1870's and was completed just at the time when this type of windmill was being phased out, replaced by roller mills and steam power and the importation of cheap wheat. The development of the railways also contributed to the demise of the traditional windmill.

The mill has been photographed over many years and this picture dates from the early 1900's when the sails had 'doubled sided shades' to enable greater power to be transferred to the mill stones. Over the years this type of design fell out of favour as it was found that comparable power could be generated using just single sided shades.

The main picture is a significant milestone in the restoration story of the mill. It was taken in 2000 when the 'cap' of the mill was about to be replaced. The cap is the wooden oak framework of a mill which supports the upper main structure and is the last fixed part of the mill.

Attached to this are the moveable portions of the mill. Dr. Carter is on the left of the picture, in the centre is Martin Archer who owns much of the land around the mill and at the time was Chairman of the Trust. On the right is miller, John Liles who's also an experienced wood craftsman. He owned a retail outlet on the site and offers his time and expertise to help keep the mill running.

The site of the mill has much to offer visitors including a restaurant and old railway carriage café. There's a miniature railway next door along with the Museum of Rural Life which was the site of the barracks for women in the military. During the Second World War, it was thought that the mill might pose a danger to aircraft. As such the RAF wanted it removed and although they made approaches to the mill to have it taken away the story is that the owner and his shotgun persuaded them otherwise.

The cost of restoring the mill has run into hundreds of thousands of pounds over the years and the ongoing expenses has led to the local community pulling together to put on a series of fundraising events over the years to help keep it going.

 The mill faces stiff competition as there are twenty other mills in the Lincolnshire area but Dr. Carter says as this was one of the last to be built by local millwrights, Saunderson's of Louth, it's a piece of the country's heritage that in his view deserves to be preserved.