Mountfort's mill, Heathcote, New Zealand 🌍

Heathcote (#nz22)

Described in the course of construction in The Lyttelton Times, Issue 128, 18 June 1853

A Windmill is in course of erection on Mr. Mountfort's land, near Christchurch Quay, on the Ferry Road. The works are progressing as fast as the wet weather will permit, and it is expected that every thing will be completed by the middle of July. The Mill is capable of grinding, with a moderate breeze, 5 bushels per hour; amply sufficient to meet the requirements of the Plains. A practical miller assures us that the Mill is a first-rate one, and supplied with everything needful for dressing flour, cleansing corn of smut, &c. Mr. Mountfort is the proprietor, and the public are indebted to him for making available property which for a considerable time has been lying useless in the Colony.

It's clear that the mill machinery had been around for a while - whether that means that it had been previously put to use somewhere else, or perhaps it had been imported from England as a number of other mills had been.

The date of mid July for completion of the mill was pretty accurate, Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 136, 13 August 1853, Page 12

HEATHCOTE WINDMILL.
MR. CHARLES W. MOUNTFORT has great pleasure in informing Agriculturists and the Public that he is now prepared to Grind and Dress Corn at the charge of One Shilling per bushel.
N.B. - The Smutter will be ready in the course of a fortnight.

The fact that the identically worded ad was still running a fortnight later presumably was a result of the cost implications of updating the text, not indicating that the smutter was slipping on a day by day basis! Indeed the ad did change to remove the warning from Issue 139, 3 Sept 1853 onwards.

The Jury List published in Feb 1856 lists Charles Mountfort as a Civil Engineer - clearly milling was just a sideline, if it was even still being carried on. His brother is also listed as an architect: Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 345, 20 February 1856, Page 2

Mountfort Benjamin W., Heathcote, architect
Mountfort, Charles W., Heathcote, civil engr.

The news of Wood's windmill being constructed a few years later was accompanied by the comment that that mill would be much better than the first attempt (ie. this mill), which implies that this was just a small or otherwise ineffective mill: Lyttelton Times, Issue 386, 16 July 1856

We have to notice the erection, in the neighbourhood of Christchurch, of a windmill ... imported by Mr. W. D. Wood. ... This is the second and much improved attempt in this Province to use the power of our regular breezes for grinding purposes.

By 1858, Mountfort had moved on to new ventures - operating a photographic portrait studio: Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 571, 24 April 1858, Page 8

PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.
MR. MOUNTFORT begs to announce that he is prepared to take portraits by the New Collodion Process. Specimens can be seen at Mr. Mountfort's, Colombo Street, Christchurch, near Messrs Gould & Miles.

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Associated people

• Charles Wheeler Mountfort