Robertson's Windmill was built in 1957 to plans outlined by Rex Wailes based on measurements from Bourn mill in Cambridgeshire. The plans were refined by Edward Hamilton, who took them through to the state of building a functional model from them.
After over 50 years in its original location, the mill was suffering from lack of maintenance, having been closed to the public since 2003, and it no longer fitted the historical interpretation of the property it was built on, so a decision was made to move it in 2010 to a more rural location nearby on the Great Hopes Plantation. Restoration work in the new location was delayed, and not completed till late 2015. In August 2022, the mill was moved back in to the historic district once agian, to be placed at the intersection of Francis Street and Bucktrout Lane.
Although there are records of a windmill in the town, the windmill was probably long gone by the 1770's which is the date the section of town the replica was in has been restored to. In addition, the site it was on was becoming surrounded by trees.
At the end of August 2010, the mill was moved overnight to the new location. In its original form it was painted white, but after being moved it was painted brown. As of 2020, outside of press releases, there was no mention of the windmill on the museum website.
Press release announcing the 2010 move, May 26, 2010:
Colonial Williamsburg plans to relocate Robertson’s Windmill
Colonial Williamsburg plans to relocate Robertson’s Windmill and make repairs to stabilize the structure at the Palace Farms site, directly across the pedestrian bridge from the Visitor Center and near Great Hopes Plantation. There the building will contribute to the landscape of rural life in the 18th century and serve as a visual beacon drawing guests across the bridge and into their 18th-century experience.
The Foundation will consult with the City of Williamsburg to review the plan and to obtain necessary approvals with the goal of relocating the windmill this summer and completing repairs by 2011. Reassembly of the windmill will take 12-18 months due to the preparation and curing time needed for large wooden elements such as the spars and wind beam.
Relocation of the windmill also will help to complete the 1770s historical scene at Peyton Randolph’s “urban plantation.” Originally erected in the early 18th century, the windmill was reconstructed in 1957, long before the Randolph site opened to the public. Current evidence suggests that Peyton Randolph removed all existing structures in this area when he undertook the sweeping expansion of his home site in the 1750s. The exact location of the original mill remains uncertain. Although historical records place it in the general vicinity, archaeological excavations have failed to uncover evidence of the structure, last mentioned in the records in 1723. The windmill’s current location is in the middle of what is believed to be the Randolphs’ kitchen or pleasure garden.
Press release on the restoration work, September 4, 2015
MEDIA ADVISORY Assembly of Windmill House, Base Set for Tuesday, Sept. 8 near Great Hopes Plantation
The refurbished Windmill of Colonial Williamsburg is set to rise over the city again Tuesday, when a 180-ton crane lifts and places its two-story, 30,000-lb rotating house back atop the structure’s 18-foot-tall main post, a key step toward restoration of the beloved attraction.
WHO: Colonial Williamsburg architectural conservators, Historic Trades carpenters and contractors WHAT: Assembly of Windmill house and base WHEN: 9 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 8; lift begins at approximately 10:30 a.m. (weather permitting) WHERE: Site adjacent to Great Hopes PlantationWork is contingent on weather conditions Sept. 5-8. Outlets interested in covering the event please RSVP to jstraw@cwf.org to receive status updates, which are also available to the public on Twitter @colonialwmsburg and at facebook.com/ColonialWilliamsburg.
Public viewing of the assembly work is available from the footpath that links the Colonial Williamsburg Regional Visitor Center to Great Hopes Plantation and the Historic Area. Guests are asked to park at the Visitor Center and cross Route 132Y via the Footbridge to the Past.
Press parking is available in the Great Hopes Plantation overflow lot on the west side of Route 132Y opposite the Woodlands Hotel and Suites. Members of the media are asked to park at the lot’s south end to the right of the employee break room building. Once on site, media representatives are also asked to check in with Foundation staff for direction.
The Windmill of Colonial Williamsburg was built in 1957 and operated at the Peyton Randolph House site through 2003, when it was closed to the public until its 2010 removal from the Historic Area. Once complete, the Windmill will overlook the Footbridge to the Past and Great Hopes Plantation.
The Windmill's restoration is possible thanks to the generosity of Raleigh Tavern and W.A.R. Goodwin Society member David McShane of Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Press release on the move back, August 8, 2022
Colonial Williamsburg Windmill Move
WHAT: The 28,000-pound mill house - the body of the Colonial Williamsburg windmill - will travel on a flatbed truck from its current site near the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Visitor Center to its new location at the intersection of Francis Street and Bucktrout Lane.
WHO: Colonial Williamsburg staff led by Matthew Webster, executive director of architectural preservation; contractors including B.E. Hassett Millwrights and Prillaman Crane and Rigging.
WHEN: Move will begin at 6 a.m. Monday, Aug. 8
WHERE: The mill house will begin at the Great Hopes parking lot and will travel south down Henry Street, across Duke of Gloucester Street, right on to Blair Street, right onto Francis Street, and left onto Bucktrout Lane. This work will briefly shut down the streets, including Bucktrout Lane.
Colonial Williamsburg's windmill is moving from its current location near the Visitor Center to a new interpretive site in the heart of the Historic Area in order to improve visitor access to the iconic landmark and to create a more engaging and immersive guest experience around 18th- century farming.
Work to move the windmill has been underway since spring 2022 but was delayed by a structural issue found during the disassembly of the mill that required repairs. The various components of the windmill – including the sails, the tailpole, the trestle and the king post – have already been moved to the new site. The mill house is the final piece of the windmill to be relocated.
Background
Colonial Williamsburg's windmill, based on the 1636 Bourn Mill in Cambridgeshire, England, was constructed in 1957. Originally located behind the Peyton Randolph house, this windmill was moved to its current location behind the Visitor Center in 2010 when it became a part of Great Hopes Plantation.
Unlike familiar smock-style windmills, in which the sail assembly rotates to face the wind independent of the structure's base, the Colonial Williamsburg windmill is a “post” windmill: the entire two-story mill house and sail rotate together atop a post-and-trestle base. A miller rotates the structure to the wind using a wheeled tailpole boom that protrudes from the house. Windmills were found in colonial Virginia and are depicted on early maps of the region. The 1782 “Frenchman's Map” of Williamsburg shows a windmill located along present-day South Henry Street. In 1723, William Robertson sold a windmill that stood near the Peyton Randolph property in Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area. Evidence in the form of documents and paintings indicates that windmills were also moved in the 18th century.
Colonial Williamsburg windmill by the numbers:
- Main or post height: 18 feet
- Mill house height: 25 feet
- Assembled house height: 36 feet
- House weight: 28,000 lbs.
- Sail span: 55 feet
- Millstones’ diameter: 3 feet
- Combined millstone weight: 2,500 lbs.
Windmills were common in colonial Virginia and were often depicted on early maps of the region. The mill you see here, erected in 1957, was moved from a site near the current Peyton Randolph house to this location in 2010. The move was made for historic accuracy and maintenance reasons.
Like all windmills, this one is a large and complex wooden machine that needs constant attention. Several of its structural and mechanical elements have worn out due to age and use. One element that will be rebuilt is the wind beam, which transfers the energy from the sails to the interior gears. This piece will be made from a single log that is 18 feet long and will weigh over 2000 pounds when it is finished. Colonial Williamsburg tradesmen will conduct necessary repairs at this location, and expect the work to be complete by the end of 2012. Once repaired, the windmill will again serve as a beacon to visitors approaching the Historic Area.
The work you see going on is related to the restoration of Collonial Williamburg's windmill.
Windmills were common in colonial Virginia and were often depicted on early maps of the region.
The mill you see here, first erected in 1957, was moved from a site near the current Peyton Randolph house to this location in 2010. The move was made for historic accuracy and maintenance reasons.
Like all windmills, this one is a large and complex wooden machine that needs constant attention. Several of its structural and mechanical elements have worn out due to age and use. One element that will be rebuilt is the wind beam, which transfers the energy from the sails to the interior gears. This piece will be made from a single log that is 18 feet long and will weigh over 2000 pounds when it is finished. Colonial Williamsburg tradesmen, and a specialized millwright, will conduct necessary repairs at this location, and expect the work to be complete by the third quarter of 2015. Once repaired, the windmill will again serve as a beacon to visitors approaching the Historic Area.
[Waymarking] [StreetView]
Reduced scale mill erected in 2011, as a recreation of the original mill from 300 years previous.
Plans to reconstruct the Yorktown windmill began in 2008 during discussion between engineer Walt Ackers and Superintendent Dan Smith and Colonial National Historical Park. The design seen here is derived from surviving paintings of the original mill, examination of research from the Historic American Building Survey and site visits to nearly a dozen surviving American windmills from the 18th and 19th centuries. The reconstructed windmill stands less than 100 yards from where the original windmill was built.
This fully-functional replica was built in Seaford, Virginia by more than 100 volunteers over the course of 3 years. Each of their names is engraved on a commemorative stone plaque that is mounted inside the mill. In the fall of 2011 the windmill was dismantled and relocated to this site in time for the 300th anniversary of the construction of the original. The Yorktown Windmill, named "Miss Evelyn" for the designer's wife, was dedicated on October 19th 2011.
The Yorktown windmill remains on permanent loan from the Akers' Family to the Watermen's Museum.
In 1621 Sir George Yeardley built a windmill on his land that later became Peirsey Hundred, and later still Flowerdew Hundred. As such this is the original that the Flowerdew Hundred replica built in 1978 was commemorating.
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The sole specifc evidence for this windmill is the fact that in 1723 William Robertson, a man of various occupations including lawyer, land owner, and holder of government offices including clerk of the General Assembly, is recorded as having deeded to John Holloway 4 parcels of Williamsburg property, "being the lots whereon the said William Robertson’s wind mill stands."
By a process of elimination, the lots were identified as being on the corner of North England and Scotland streets, and again by eliminating places where other buildings were known to have been placed, a consensus was reached of the likely location of the mill on the property. Despite excavations, no trace was found of the mill's foundations - which itself was taken as evidence that the mill was a post mill, rather than a smock or tower mill which would have had more substantial foundations.
The Frenchman's Map of Williamsburg shows a windmill located to the south of the Public Hospital. (See the bottom left corner of the map image).
Built in 1711 by William Buckner, the Yorktown windmill was a guidepost on the York River for nearly two centuries. After retiring from his post as Surveyor General of Virginia, Buckner purchased the pointed bluff just above Yorktown from John Lewis of Gloucester for the express purpose of building a mill to grind corn. Although Buckner died only five years later the mill continued to provide most the flour for York County throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.
Although mill was never photographed, there are a number of paintings, engravings and sketches that show the windmill and its location through the years. The first of these is a painting entitled "A view of the town of York Virginia from the river" which was painted by Lt. Thomas Davies, an officer on the H.M.S. Success duringits vorage to Nova Scotia and Virginia from 1754-1756.
Perhaps the best known depiction of the windmill is in the paintings by James and Charles Peale entitled "Washington and his generals at Yorktown". Painted in 1784, the image is a depiction of the Commanders following the siege of Yorktown. While the windmill is not the central focus of the painting, its inclusion here demonstrates that the mill survived in the original location from its construction in 1711 through the end of the American Revolution.
A depiction of the Yorktown windmill in decline is portrayed in the image entitled "View of Yorktown from the old windmill as you approach from Williamsburg". A hand-coloured wood engraving, this image was published in 1848 by Robert Sears as part of his collection "A new and popular pictorial description of the United States."
During both the American Revolution and the American Civil War, Yorktown took the centre stage of history during key campaigns. Military and logistical maps from both periods show the Yorktown windmill as a landmark. Research conducted during the reconstruction of the Yorktown windmill, suggests that it may have relocated across Windmill Creek and the early 1800s.
| Last updated 10/03/2025 | Text and images © Mark Berry, 1997-2024 - |
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