Wind Engines in Britain 🌍

The UK does not have the wide open prairies to be found in the USA, Australia, or South Africa, and as such did not have huge quantities of the metal windpumps which these countries tend to associate with the word "windmill".

In the UK, these machines are generally called "wind engines", to distinguish them from our windmills which (predominantly) grind grain.

Wind engines have 4 main distinguishing features:

a tower which is empty of machinery, but just serves to raise the wind catching mechanism into the wind
fairly small power output
a simple design suited to mass production
an annular sail

Surviving mills

#	photo	id	name	location	type	condition	maps
1	no image	#we3		Amberley working Museum, near Arundel, West Sussex	wind engine by Duke & Ockenden of Littlehampton		(50.89821,-0.5387) Google Maps, OpenStreetMap Bing Google Earth (web) GeoHack
2	no image	#we6		Bishops Castle	Pete Griffith's collection of restored wind engines
3	no image			Calbourne watermill, Isle of Wight		Details [info]
4	no image			Charterhouse monastery, Horsham, Sussex	Éolienne Bollée No.1	Details [info]
5	no image	#1777		Crux Easton, Hampshire	Wind engine by John Wallis Titt	magnificently restored in 2002	(51.30442,-1.3891) OS Map, OS historical, Google Maps, OpenStreetMap Bing Google Earth (web) GeoHack
6	no image			Halstead House Farm, Halstead, Tilton-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire	19th Century wind engine	Details [info]
7	no image	#we5		Old Newton, Stowmarket Suffolk			(52.22332,1.00002) Google Maps, OpenStreetMap Bing Google Earth (web) GeoHack
8	no image	#we4		Rural Life Living Museum, Tilford, Farnham, Surrey	hybrid wind engine, consisting of a Climax mechanism on a Duke & Ockenden tower		(51.18290,-0.7734) Google Maps, OpenStreetMap Bing Google Earth (web) GeoHack
9		#we2	Spielplatz naturist resort	St Albans		the tower is still in situ, the tail is believed to still be on site somewhere, though the vanes were sold for scrap	(51.71721,-0.3583) Google Maps, OpenStreetMap Bing Google Earth (web) GeoHack
10		#2214		The Bob Morse collection, Repps, Norfolk	a collection of restored wind engines		(52.69813,1.56922) OS Map, OS historical, Google Maps, OpenStreetMap Bing Google Earth (web) GeoHack

Historical mills

This table is selective, and probably far from comprehensive.

#	photo	id	name	location	type	condition	maps
1	no image			Bury St Edmunds	John Wallis Titt wind engine	Details [info]
2	no image			Chilworth Friary, Killarney, Ireland	Duke & Ockenden	Details [info]
3	no image			Creech St Michael, Somerset	Halladay's patent design of 1854, as manufactured by Bury and Pollard, Pollard Jephson and Co., Owens and Co. and others. The last examples to survive complete were Angmering (now gone) and Iwade (now restored by Bob Morse). Halstead House Farm, Leicestershire, partially surviving, was another one of the same type.	Details [photo] [photo]
4	no image			Hawkinge, Kent		Details [info]
5	no image			Hinton Charterhouse, Avon	John Wallis Titt wind engine	Details [info]
6	no image			Marchwood Yacht Club, Southampton	John Wallis Titt wind engine	Details [info]
7	no image			Mow Cop, Staffordshire	John Wallis Titt wind engine	Details [info]
8	no image	#we1	hydraulic pumping station	Wapping			(51.50742,-0.0513) Google Maps, OpenStreetMap Bing Google Earth (web) GeoHack

Manufacturers

John Wallis Titt

The wind engines made by John Wallis Titt were some of the finest British made wind engines.

[history] [The company today] [history (earlier location)] [company archives] [Simplex engine]

Duke & Ockenden of Littlehampton

Duke & Ockenden, commonly known as DANDO, produced wind engines from at least 1869-1914. They still exist, but now are mostly concerned with specialist drilling for water etc.

[company history] [company archives]

Bibliography

Bibliotheca Molinologica irregular publications of TIMS.
- Volume 3. J. Kenneth Major (ed.): The Windmills of John Wallis Titt. 37 pp. (1977).
- Volume 8. J. Kenneth Major; Gaucheron André: The Éoliènne Bolée. 66 pp. (1985).
Rolt Memorial Lecture, 1990 'Wind Engines' (J.K. Major), AIA Industrial Archaeology Review vol XIV p55 onwards
The Éolienne Bollée at St. Hugh's Monastery, Cowfold. Nick Kelly, and Ron Martin (1999). Newsl Sussex Ind Archaeol Soc, 102, page 2
The Competitive Testing of Wind Engines, J. Kenneth Major, TIMS 10th International Symposium on Molinology, 2000
Wind Engines, Suffolk Mills Group newsletter No 74, May 1999 p12-13
Barn-Top Mills: A study of the agricultural wind engine, Gareth Hughes, Proceedings of the Fourteenth Mill Research Conference 1996 ISBN 0 9509758 9 3.
The Smaller English Windpump, Gareth Hughes, Proceedings of the Fifteenth Mill Research Conference ISBN 0 9530049 1 0.

Map of all mills - Download to Google Earth - Overpass

Last generated 08/05/2026