History Details
Built in 1794 by Ralph Slater it was the tallest windmill in Lancashire, Ralph was a renowned local builder who also built the other Fylde windmills at Pilling and Clifton. Marsh is the only working windmill on the Fylde. The windmill was first operated by Samuel Thomason, then his son and later by James Tyler until he sold out in 1896 to Poulton Corn Millers Parkinson & Tomlinson. Around this time the mill was surveyed by Richard Blezzard, Millwright of Preston, who found the sails to be in a poor state. They were so rotten that one eventually fell off and landed in the mill-yard. The mill was modernised in this year when Richard Blezzard replaced the original oak windshaft with the present hollow cast iron one. The sails were replaced with Cubitts patent type and self adjusting gear, total cost £285.0s.6d. Villagers would take their corn to the mill to be ground but at the turn of the 20th century the windmill could not produce the white flour which was in such high demand. It was however still used to grind meal for use by local farmers until 1922. The mill was unused until 1928 when it was used as a tea room and later purchased by the urban district council in 1957 with view to a restoration project, this project eventually started in 1965 which included four new common sails and a new skeleton fantail. The above picture, from a Thornton Cleveleys Pictorial review, shows how the mill looked in 1946 viewed from Fleetwood Road. In the seventies and eighties the Thornton Windmill Preservation Society started work refurbishing the internal machinery and with help from volunteers, including apprentices from B.N.F.L. Salwick, and Council funding it became the working tourist attraction we see today. There is provision for the sails to turn by electricity but this has not been operated for some time. When the Marsh Mill craft village was added in the nineties a deep brick walled well of two metres diameter was discovered in the yard just outside what was once the blacksmiths. The well was filled in as part of the new development. In June 2004, ownership of the windmill went from council to private ownership. This aerial view from 1967 shows the undeveloped Mill area with the allotments behind. In the front yard of the Mill a brick water well was uncovered during construction of the Marsh Mill Craft Village, it was unfortunately recovered. Marsh Mill was mentioned by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner in his book "The buildings of England, North Lancashire". He described it as the best preserved mill in Lancashire. |