Birstall windmill, Yorkshire

Eli Brook was a cornmiller in 1841, living at Brownhill, Batley. On the 1851 census Eli and family appear in Beeston, Holbeck area of Leeds, also recorded as a cornmiller, though it's unclear where he milled.

My initial research would indicate that the Brownhill windmill (Windmill Lane, Brownhill, Birstall) was owned by the local landowner, which would have been the family Bat until the turn of the C late 1700's, when the family moved from Oakwell Hall, Batley. During the next 30-40 years the property changed hands several times, so I am trying to trace who owned it in 1841 which is when our GGG grandfather was the cornmiller.

After the mid 1800s Oakwell Hall has a chequred history ending up in the Local Authority hands in the early 1900's and is now a museum.

The windmill stump still stands and is on the land of the Brownhill Infants School, Upper Batley Lane.