Lytham St.Annes Coat of Arms

 
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Lytham St.Annes, Lancashire, England
 

 

 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.