Extract from a newspaper articlte article on windmills, in the "Preston
Guardian" by Mr. T. Harrison Myers, 1914.
Kirkham mills must now claim our consideration. In passing, it
is worth while to remark that the ancient town is certainly the earliest one
inhabited in the Fylde.
Reference to it and its mill are to be found in the Ledger Book
of the Vale Royal Abbey, to which Kirkham's Church and neighbouring lands once
belonged. The extract, (as translated) relates to a transaction early in the 14th
century, and is as follows:
"Be it remembered that John de Wadder took the mill of Kirkham
for a term of his life, the term commencing on the feast of St.Michael the
Archangel, 1337, at a rent of four marks yearly; and he will repair the said mill
anew in all things with millstones and all gear and houses and other things to be
found there, and will maintain the same at his own expense ; and all this he will
do within one year from the feast of St. Michael aforesaid."
History tells us that a Kirkham mill, called a peg-and-post
mill, was taken down about 130 years ago, and removed piecemeal across the estuary
to Birkdale, Southport. In 1893 a well-known old mill of the tower type, standing
on high ground in the rear of the Magistrates' Clerk's office, Railway Road, was
pulled down, after doing good service for 150 years but of its history little is
known except that it formerly belonged to the Birley family, and about 50 years ago
was used as a school, and afterwards as a residence.
'The only mill not standing at Kirkham of the tower type, is on
high ground east of the town. It is called Carr Hill Mill, and is now in ruins. A
very destructive fire, some years ago, put ain end to all working. Since then year
by year the structure has lost its sails and gearing.
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