Sharnbrook Windmill

Sharnbrook Windmill, 1878 [ref: Z1306/100/34/1]

Sharnbrook tower mill was a small tower mill built of local oolitic limeston. It was three floors with two pairs of 4ft stones on the first floor. It is believed to have been erected in the 1870s/1880s; a postcard of the windmill from 1878 shows the windmill already in situ [ref: Z1306/100/34/1]. 

Unfortunately the era of the windmill was coming to an end and in 1890 the windmill ceased working with the sails taken down in 1920.

In 1966 a proposal was made to turn the windmill into an observation and clock tower [ref: RDBP6/66/481] and in 1967 the contents were stripped out. During the early 1970s the mill was converted into an observation tower by Clement Howard managing director of C.A.E.C Howard a long established Bedford engineering firm.

List of sources at Bedfordshire Archives: 

• Z1306/100/34/1: Postcard of The Windmill, Sharnbrook, 1878
• Z1306/100/34/2: Postcard of 'The Old Windmill, Sharnbrook', 1910
• Z1306/100/34/3: Postcard of Windmill, Sharnbrook in derelict state, c.1920
• X657/9: Negative of Sharnbrook windmill, sails damaged, 1900-1930
• X657/10: Negative of Sharnbrook windmill, sail damaged, 1900-1930
• X657/34: Negative of Sharnbrook windmill (sails almost destroyed), c.1928
• RDBP3/451: Plan (2). Conversion windmill, Sharnbrook, 1945
• RDBP6/66/481: SHARNBROOK: Proposed Conversion of Windmill into Observation & Clock Tower at Windmill House, Sharnbrook for Mr C A E C Howard, 1966