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Wind turbines in Spondon: the return of the windmill

 

The new wind turbines that have been erected by Severn-Trent at their treatment works in Spondon are not the first wind powered structures in the village.

A mill is mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086. Part of the entry for Spondon reads:-“14 villagers and 2 smallholders, a Priest and a Church; 1 mill, taxed at 5s.4d (27p).” We don’t know where this mill was, but it is likely to have been in the same place as a later mill. According to Alan Gifford in his book on Derbyshire Windmills, this later mill was situated a quarter of a mile away from the church on Locko Road. It stood in a circular yard of what eventually became the cricket pitch.

It is first mentioned in the Derby Mercury in May1824, when the son of Mr Harrison of Spondon was struck on the head by the sails and killed. The mill is shown on several maps in 1825 and1826, including an Ordnance Survey Map of 1838 where it is shown as a tower mill. This mill was a working mill until at least the1860s. It was advertised for sale in the Derby Mercury in September 1846 as follows: - “To be sold a piece of grassland of 3 acres with a corn mill upon it in the occupancy of Mr Bennett.”

When Spondon Cricket Club moved to the ground in 1903 they adopted the windmill as their logo. In 2006 the cricket club moved to its new ground and during construction of 28 houses on the site, foundations of the old mill were discovered.

 

Tim Martin

2014