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Hammerwich Windmill
Hammerwich Mill, previously known as Speedwell Mill and Benton's Mill, is probably the oldest in the Midlands, and reputedly one of the last working Mills in Staffordshire.
It is on record in 1300 when a Cecelia sued one Henry Wymer of Stafford for some property, including "a windmill at Hammerwich". Henry failed to appear at the hearing, and the disputed property was placed in the hands of the Crown until he did so. The outcome of this episode is however not on record.
The Mill was originally a stone tower, most likely local sandstone, but was bricked on the exterior in 1779 by Henry Middleton, who worked it until 1823 before passing it on to his son William, it was then referred to as "Speedwell Mill".
It is known that William Middleton sold the Mill, in 1827, and having been worked by Thomas Davis, in 1851 it came into the hands of the Benton family, who were millers in Hammerwich for a number of years. At this time it was referred to locally as "Benton's Mill".
John Benton, whose gravestone in St. John's churchyard, Hammerwich, bears the words "of Hammerwich Mill", worked the Mill until his death in 1881, when, it passed into the hands of his widow, Elizabeth Benton. She is shown to have owned the Mill until her death in 1898. Some time in this period outhouses were constructed to house a boiler and steam engine to supplement wind power when necessary.
Visitors, called Benton, from the U.S.A., from California and Connecticut, have been to see Hammerwich Mill, though each family called it Benton's Mill. This would seem to indicate that after Elizabeth Benton, family members emigrated to America, one family telling us of relatives, also Bentons, who set up a water mill in Canada. Hammerwich Mill ceased grinding in 1908, and the top floor, containing the machinery was dismantled. The Mill was purchased by Robert Sanders, the Hammerwich Postmaster, who converted it into a house and added a battlemented top to the tower.
The house was modernised in 1977 when a fourth floor and a fibreglass cupola were added. In 1985 the engine house was converted to a spare bedroom and bathroom. An apocryphal story is told concerning a thoughtless farmer who, when taking grain to be milled, tethered his donkey to one of the sails whilst the Mill was momentarily idle; when the Mill began to work, the unfortunate animal was hoisted into the air.
lan G.Crossland, January 2003.
