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Thomas Moore (b.1791) was the miller at Hoo Hill
Windmill, near Blackpool, in the 1840s and then at Lytham Windmill in the
1850s. He lived in Market Square with his wife, Mary and son John
(1831-1858). He retired aged about 71, by which time he was living in "Gas
Street".
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MEMORIES OF LYTHAM WINDMILL
IN THE 1850s
Many a time have I lain on the sward at its foot
listening to and watching the rumbling swift descent of its huge
arms and the swish as they grazed the long grass growing on the
platform or round terrace on which the mill stood and wondering
whether it would be possible to grip hole of the ladder-like
lattice of the arms and be whirled round and then let go at the
right moment as earth was reached again.
Our mother told us that the Clifton tenantry was bound to grind its
corn at the mill all and that all millers horses were proverbially
fat, but the miller seemed to us to be but a lean and surly sort of
churl, who thought all boys were imps of Satan instead of being
innocent little angel-lambs!
Once or twice, however, when the mill was working well, and he was
in a good humour in consequence, we coaxed him into taking us
inside and showing us with pride how the corn ran out of a big
hopper up aloft to the revolving stones, whence it dribbled and
trickled down through other hoppers and sieves, and finally into
the sacks at the bottom.
He even let us out on to the little platform
behind at the top, where the steering gear was, and whence we had a
fine view all over the country.
Extract from an article by
H.T.Crofton, Manchester City News,
1919 in which he reminisces about Lytham in the 1850s.
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By the 1840s, Lytham was fast developing as a health resort and
substantial properties were being erected on the seafront. The noise from the
windmill and the smoke from the kiln furnace were seen as a nuisance by the new
residents.
The kiln was rebuilt in "Kiln Street" at the East End of Lytham
though had to be rebuilt after a disastrous fire in 1859 virtually destroyed it
(see below).
FIRE
Yesterday
morning, between two and three o'clock, the drying kiln belonging
to the Lytham windmill was seen to be on fire.
An alarm
was given and the neighbours assembled with cans,
and, with great
exertions, the fire was got under about five o'clock, but not
before the roof and floors, and part of the walls, had fallen
in.
There were
upwards of one hundred sacks of oats belonging to farmers, and a
large quantity of oats from the Robert Henry, now lying on
the Horse Bank, in the kiln at the time.
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