Preston's Windmills - A Mill Town Before Cotton (Revisited)
Alternatively titled...
"How come Eskimos have fifty words for snow and we only have one word for mill?"
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| Preston's Windmills - what3words Windmill Locations |
Considering that I have been in the area for more than half a century and have visited a lot of places in and around the city, I was totally unaware that Preston had a windmill, let alone quite a lot in a reasonably concentrated area in days gone by.
It started with an idea that I could cycle around the county and visit all the windmills on my way. The start point was to locate where they all were on the map. I was already familiar with the ones on the Fylde coast, some of which are still in very good condition. I had also passed some without sails in West Lancashire. To my amazement, Craggs Row popped up on a number of searches. I had genuinely never seen it, or heard of it before.
More recently, as a completely separate exercise, I had been looking at old illustrations and paintings of the town of Preston and was struck by how many windmills could be seen within the landscape. At first, I thought that these images may be a little romantic, and perhaps used a lot of artistic licence. However, the more I looked, the more consistent and accurate they appeared to be.
The next thing on the trail was when I first discovered the very detailed town plans (maps) of Preston that were created in the middle of the nineteenth century (published in 1848). Using tool on the National Library of Scotland (NLoS) website, which I have referenced a good number of times before, I was able to pinpoint them on the maps. The tools on NLoS also allowed me to compare the geolocations on the old maps with modern satellite images. Thus gaining and understanding of where they once stood.
Ironically, on one of my regular visits to the Preston Digital Archive, I realised that Barney Smith had been down the same path a number of years earlier. He had collated almost the same OS map screenshots. However, he also had another map with the windmills pinpointed. This William Shakeshaft's Map of Preston that was made in 1822. During the approximately quarter of a century period between Shakeshaft's map and the visit by the Ordnance Survey, a windmill had appeared on the corner where Sedgewick Street met Park Lane. He had marked one very near to the Prison, at the end of Deepdale Road, but this was not on the later OS map.
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| William Shakeshaft's Map of Preston that was made in 1822 |
I can find no other evidence of this windmill, further to the east than the others, and now wonder whether it is Park Lane/Sedgewick Street, but marked in the wrong location. However, that does seem to be unlikely.
I have been looking at this subject on and off for a couple of years now, and I haven't really been able to dig any deeper. There seems to be very little information to be found online.
Going back to my 'alternative title', this search isn't helped by the fact that somebody, in their infinite wisdom, started to refer to cotton spinning and weaving factories as 'mills'. Also, places that sawed timber became 'mills' too. In either of those places, there really isn't any milling occurring. The word mill means ‘to grind’.
I realise that the number of words that Eskimos have for snow is to some extent an exaggeration, Internet myth or urban legend. However, I was just trying to make a point. It just would have been handy if the English could have been a bit more imaginative and not used 'mill' for everything remotely industrial.
Also, in a rather unfortunate coincidence, I came to realise that one of few people to publish books about the history of windmills happens to be called Preston. Hayter Preston (no relation, well, at least I don't think so) authored books about Windmills with illustrations by Frank Brangwyn. These quite often appear in my searches, further muddying the water. They don't help, because he doesn't appear to have visited Lancashire.
Probably the last factor in making the search quite difficult is that the first proper censuses in England didn't take place until the nineteenth century. Windmills would have probably had their heyday in the seventeenth century and earlier. From that point of view, it is quite hard to find out who owned them and who was working in them.
The Location of Preston's Windmills
As per the earlier comment, surprisingly the majority of them are in a relatively small area, approximately around what I would call the Adelphi Quarter. These are all located in an area, which is contained within the modern day streets (or roads) of the Ring Road (A59), Friargate, Moor Lane and North Road (A6).
I had accounts for a larger number in some written records but, whilst a good effort of identifying them had been made by somebody who was not local to the area, based on the names he'd supplied there were some duplicates. For example, the researcher made reference to Sedgwick Street mill, Kirkham's Mill and Sedgewith Street mill, which I believe all refer to Park Lane Windmill that would have been on Sedgwick Street.
Evidence of five of these windmills can be seen on the following Ordnance Survey Maps of the area. The map can be viewed on the National Libraries of Scotland website.
Map 1 - Preston Sheet 11
This map contains evidence of the Factory, Friargate, Parr Croft, Singleton Row (Craggs Row) and Snow Hill Windmills.
The map was surveyed in 1847 and published in 1849.
(Railway revision to c. 1856). Reprinted: 1882
Size: map 64.4 cm x 96.6 cm (25.344 x 38.016 inches), on sheet ca. 72 x 104 cm (ca. 28 x 41 inches)
NLoS Map: https://maps.nls.uk/view/231280341
Map 2 - Preston Sheet 12
This map contains evidence of the Park Lane and Margaret Street Windmills.
The map was also surveyed in 1847 and published in 1849.
(Railway revision to c. 1856).
Size: map 64.4 cm x 96.6 cm (25.344 x 38.016 inches), on sheet ca. 72 x 104 cm (ca. 28 x 41 inches)
NLoS Map: https://maps.nls.uk/view/231280344
what3words Windmill Locations
The following what3words locations represent approximately where the centre of the base of the tower for each of the identified windmills would have been. Obviously, that is with the exception of the Craggs Row windmill, which is still standing. The centre of the tower of Craggs Row windmill is still at approximately bands.daring.eating.
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| Preston's Windmills - what3words Windmill Locations |
///inch.learns.glaze - Friargate Windmill
///again.relate.human - Factory Windmill, Moor Lane
///bands.daring.eating - Singleton Row Windmill (now Craggs Row - Extant)
///rests.deeply.scenes - Parr Croft Windmill
///jumpy.speak.beyond - Park Lane Windmill, Sedgwick Street (Kirkham's Mill)
///upgrading.tend.topic - Margaret Street Windmill (Horn's Mill)
///bake.desks.lasted - Snow Hill Windmill
There was another windmill further north on Cadley Moor and I have found references to others at Broadgate and Frenchwood (Sike [Syke] Hill Mill).
The search for information continues...
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Earlier posts on this topic
Preston's Windmills - A Mill Town Before Cotton (Part 1)
January 11, 2024
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Preston's Windmills - A Mill Town Before Cotton (Part 2)
February 20, 2024
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