The Windmill
Croxley Green Mill was originally a five storey tower mill with a stage at second floor level. The tower has an internal diameter of 22 feet (6.71 m) at ground level. It had a boat shaped cap winded by a fantail. The four Patent sails drove three pairs of millstones. It was built in c1820 according to Historic England's listing. The tower is built of mixed red and stock brick with a leaded roof with timber parapet. There are timber steps up to a first floor timber balcony running all the way around. It was converted and extended for residential use in the1960s. The glazed entrance was added in the1960s and, to historians, the residential extension is of no special interest. The Windmill itself is a Grade II listed building and the list entry number is: 1100797
The windmill was operated until the sails were blown off in a gale in the 1880s. It was then worked by steam power and was last used to grind wheat in 1899.
The windmill was operated until the sails were blown off in a gale in the 1880s. It was then worked by steam power and was last used to grind wheat in 1899.
Milllers of the Croxley Green Windmill
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After 1900 it became a sawmill and turnery but by the 1930s it was being used as a chicken house and pigeon loft. During the Second World War, the mill was used as an air raid precautions observation post, with an air raid siren mounted on the tower. After the war it was converted into a residential property and had an extension built on the side in the 1960s. The windmill has 2,055 sq ft of accommodation with a lounge/dining room and greenhouse in the sixties extension on the ground floor. A workshop or family room occupies the circular part of the mill alongside a kitchen and bathroom in the extension on the first floor. A circular sitting room rests on the second floor and a third bedroom also lies on the top floor of the former mill. it is tucked away in grounds of just under half an acre and can be accessed over a tarmac driveway.
Anonymous memories of the Mill: (c1950)
The present mill was adapted to steam power in Queen Victoria’s reign and corn was still being ground there within living memory. The miller, Mr. Holloway, also specialised in the making of wooden malting shovels for brewers.
The sails of the windmill no longer show above the housetops, a wild wind one morning in 1890 blew two of the sails away and the miller, who was ill at the time was unable to repair them. The mill had been built at some date between 1841 and 1851, in a field that was part of the holding of Thomas Blackwell of "Smoky Hall". The mill came later into the possession of Ephraim Holloway and it was to this mill that the many gleaners of the corn fields carried their gleaning' to be ground into flour, the miller retaining the "offal" as his payment. The windmill is the end of this wander into the past, it is all past, but the, story of the Green will go on - new buildings replacing the old, new people too as well as new memories, there is room for the past but one has to look forward into the future for that is what living is for.
Anonymous memories of the Mill: (c1950)
The present mill was adapted to steam power in Queen Victoria’s reign and corn was still being ground there within living memory. The miller, Mr. Holloway, also specialised in the making of wooden malting shovels for brewers.
The sails of the windmill no longer show above the housetops, a wild wind one morning in 1890 blew two of the sails away and the miller, who was ill at the time was unable to repair them. The mill had been built at some date between 1841 and 1851, in a field that was part of the holding of Thomas Blackwell of "Smoky Hall". The mill came later into the possession of Ephraim Holloway and it was to this mill that the many gleaners of the corn fields carried their gleaning' to be ground into flour, the miller retaining the "offal" as his payment. The windmill is the end of this wander into the past, it is all past, but the, story of the Green will go on - new buildings replacing the old, new people too as well as new memories, there is room for the past but one has to look forward into the future for that is what living is for.
CROXLEY WINDMILL AND THE HOLLOWAYS – Frank Paddick (Article for Rickmansworth Historical Society)
Standing near the main road at the top of Scots Hill, Croxley Green windmill will be familiar to most readers of The Rickmansworth Historian. It has been without its sails since a gale in the 1880’s, but its great tower is still one of Croxley’s landmarks. It was built in 1820, but I have found no records of the first thirty-seven years of history. The present deeds, which I have been able to examine through the courtesy of Mr. P. C. Coles, gives details of the ownership since 1857, when on January 22nd, Mr James Davies of Hemel Hempstead, ironfounder, bought it from William Stone for £520. The windmill was already mortgaged to Edward or Edmond Brown, a maltster of Uxbridge.
It was in 1877 that the windmill came into the ownership of the family Croxley will always associate with it: the Holloways. In a deed dated September 6th, 1877, James Davies conveyed to Mr. Ephraim Holloway the “windmill, with stabling and buildings, therein containing an acre and thirteen poles more or less” for £600. Ephraim Holloway was already living at the mill at the time of his purchase, but how long he had been in residence I do not know. On the same day, September 6th, he obtained a mortgage for the full purchase price of £600 from “Mr. George Smart Gent.” of Rickmansworth.
The document recording the mortgage is interesting because it refers to the equipment of the mill, including “Mill Gear, Millwright’s works and machinery, steam engines and steam boilers”, confirming that at this time the mill already depended upon steam for its power. The sails were probably out of use when they were torn away by the gale, which also destroyed the wooden cap. This was replaced by Robert Lindsay, a Scot who best-known in Croxley as the first manager of the Co-operative Society. His “office” was then a front room in Dickinson Square.
Ephraim Holloway died intestate on June 7th 1890 and his property descended to his wife Hannah and his son Henry Ephraim. At this time only £50 had been repaid of the £600 borrowed from George Smart. On June 9th of the following year Hannah and her son conveyed the mill, subject to Mr. Smart’s mortgage, to William Weston, miller, of Grove Mill in consideration of £500. On the same day, June 9th, 1891, Mr. Weston leased the mill to Mrs. Holloway for a term of fourteen years, the first four years at a quarterly rent of £36 and the remainder at £42
On February 16th, 1892, Mr. George Smart conveyed his interest in the mill to William Weston for £350. Mr. Weston thus owned the mill outright, and just three years later, on March 27th, 1895, he sold it to Mr. Thomas Hoade Woods, of 8, King Street, St. James’s Square, for £770. Now Mr. Weston had paid Hannah and Henry Ephraim Holloway £550 for the mill, and then had paid George Smart £350 to clear the mortgage on it: a total of £900. His income from the mil while he owned it can only have been at most £140, according to the lease arranged between him and Hannah Holloway. A selling price of £770 would have left him a return of £10 to cover his legal costs – not a very good investment. Particularly since Mr. Weston was a miller it is difficult to resist the suggestion that in paying £550 for the heavily mortgaged property he was going out of his way to help the widow of a fellow-miller, and that the rent paid was in fact only a return on some of his capital.
During Mr. Weston’s and Mr. Woods’ ownerships the Holloways remained in occupation of the mill, and at some time in the next ten years they came into ownership of it once more, for in 1905 we find it in the hands of Mr. F. Holloway. I have seen no record of it coming into his possession so cannot give the exact date.
To go back to Ephraim Holloway, on August 27th, 1862, Ephraim Holloway, bachelor, married Hannah Scaldwell, spinster at the General Baptist Chapel, Chesham. To Croxley Green Ephraim was not only the miller, he was a well-known as a cricketer, playing for Croxley for many years. In sporting prowess, however, he was outshone by his son Jim. Born in 1879, Jim Holloway was the doyen of Croxley cricket – the demon bowler of Croxley Green.
Jim Holloway was for forty-three years a playing member of Croxley’s cricket team, and for twenty-six of those years he was captain. The cricket field in those days was opposite the Red House. In the record book are plentiful records of the Holloway prowess, with “bowled J. Holloway” constantly recurring. Jim once took nine wickets for one run, while in another year he captured a hundred wickets between May 1st and the end of August in Saturday cricket alone. Jim Holloway was seventy when he made his last bow as a player, and the analysis in the score book shows, fittingly, “J. Holloway: 2 wickets for 0 runs”.
Jim continued to serve the Cricket Club as Chairman long after his playing days ended, while his son was by then a team member and Match Secretary. Frank and Horace Holloway also played at the club. Jim Holloway’s own favourite recollection was of being captain of the team when it included Sir Reginald Bonsor. Entering the pavilion before the game, they met, and Captain Holloway enquired of Sir Reginald, “Which position do you prefer to field in, Sir?” “Wherever you place me, Sir” replied Sir Reginald, thus defining their status on the field of play.
The Holloway family gained, I am told, one further distinction in the world of sport, although not a very enviable one. One of the brothers was responsible for a significant change in the rules governing pigeon racing. There was a great deal if interest in the sport in Croxley before the First World War, when it was just becoming organised, and one of the Holloways entered a bird for a trophy race – one carrying also a substantial cash prize. The pigeon, along with several other local entries, was dispatched by rail to the releasing point. and the Croxley owners counter the hours to the return of their fancied entrants.
Long before they were expected the Holloway entry flapped its way tiredly round the mill, was spotted, and as its owner rushed excitedly out, alighted in a nearby tree. Now to claim the prize it was necessary to produce the ring from the bird’s leg, as well as a certificate of the time home. The pigeon-loft was opened, but the pigeon remained in the tree. Grain was sprinkled on the ground, and the anxious owner made clucking noises. There was still no movement from the bird, which now seemed to have gone to sleep, tired by its long journey, no doubt.
The precious minutes were ticking away, and the owner becoming more and more distraught. The prize, he was sure, was almost within his grasp, yet the pigeon still rested comfortably out of reach. There was no time for a ladder, and had it been tried it might well have frightened the bird away. He took a quick decision, rushed indoors for a moment, and within seconds of returning had the bird in his hands – shot.
The ring was removed from the corpse, and crime in this instance paid, for the prize was won, but somehow the story got about. Perhaps some other Croxley owner would have won the prize but for that flash of Holloway quickness of mind. In any event, the rules as they stood then said nothing against the owners shooting the birds. The pigeon-racing press took the matter up, and the rules were altered. Since then the winner of any prize must be able to produce his bird, alive and well, before the trophy is awarded!
An old rhyme runs,
Blow wind, blow, and go Mill, go!
That the Miller may grind his corn,
That the Baker may take it
And into bread make it,
And bring us a loan in the morn.
Frank Holloway, who owned the Mill in the early years of this century, was also Croxley’s baker, and brought us many “a loaf in the morn”. But the Mill will grind no more, and our bread comes to us wrapped from far away. There are still Holloways in Croxley Green, and long may there be, and when the train rattle across the old cricket ground opposite the Red House, perhaps very faintly there is a cry of “Zat!” in the summer sun, as some long-vanished batsman is “Bowled J. Holloway, 0”
Note: The above article was left unfinished by Mr. Paddick
Standing near the main road at the top of Scots Hill, Croxley Green windmill will be familiar to most readers of The Rickmansworth Historian. It has been without its sails since a gale in the 1880’s, but its great tower is still one of Croxley’s landmarks. It was built in 1820, but I have found no records of the first thirty-seven years of history. The present deeds, which I have been able to examine through the courtesy of Mr. P. C. Coles, gives details of the ownership since 1857, when on January 22nd, Mr James Davies of Hemel Hempstead, ironfounder, bought it from William Stone for £520. The windmill was already mortgaged to Edward or Edmond Brown, a maltster of Uxbridge.
It was in 1877 that the windmill came into the ownership of the family Croxley will always associate with it: the Holloways. In a deed dated September 6th, 1877, James Davies conveyed to Mr. Ephraim Holloway the “windmill, with stabling and buildings, therein containing an acre and thirteen poles more or less” for £600. Ephraim Holloway was already living at the mill at the time of his purchase, but how long he had been in residence I do not know. On the same day, September 6th, he obtained a mortgage for the full purchase price of £600 from “Mr. George Smart Gent.” of Rickmansworth.
The document recording the mortgage is interesting because it refers to the equipment of the mill, including “Mill Gear, Millwright’s works and machinery, steam engines and steam boilers”, confirming that at this time the mill already depended upon steam for its power. The sails were probably out of use when they were torn away by the gale, which also destroyed the wooden cap. This was replaced by Robert Lindsay, a Scot who best-known in Croxley as the first manager of the Co-operative Society. His “office” was then a front room in Dickinson Square.
Ephraim Holloway died intestate on June 7th 1890 and his property descended to his wife Hannah and his son Henry Ephraim. At this time only £50 had been repaid of the £600 borrowed from George Smart. On June 9th of the following year Hannah and her son conveyed the mill, subject to Mr. Smart’s mortgage, to William Weston, miller, of Grove Mill in consideration of £500. On the same day, June 9th, 1891, Mr. Weston leased the mill to Mrs. Holloway for a term of fourteen years, the first four years at a quarterly rent of £36 and the remainder at £42
On February 16th, 1892, Mr. George Smart conveyed his interest in the mill to William Weston for £350. Mr. Weston thus owned the mill outright, and just three years later, on March 27th, 1895, he sold it to Mr. Thomas Hoade Woods, of 8, King Street, St. James’s Square, for £770. Now Mr. Weston had paid Hannah and Henry Ephraim Holloway £550 for the mill, and then had paid George Smart £350 to clear the mortgage on it: a total of £900. His income from the mil while he owned it can only have been at most £140, according to the lease arranged between him and Hannah Holloway. A selling price of £770 would have left him a return of £10 to cover his legal costs – not a very good investment. Particularly since Mr. Weston was a miller it is difficult to resist the suggestion that in paying £550 for the heavily mortgaged property he was going out of his way to help the widow of a fellow-miller, and that the rent paid was in fact only a return on some of his capital.
During Mr. Weston’s and Mr. Woods’ ownerships the Holloways remained in occupation of the mill, and at some time in the next ten years they came into ownership of it once more, for in 1905 we find it in the hands of Mr. F. Holloway. I have seen no record of it coming into his possession so cannot give the exact date.
To go back to Ephraim Holloway, on August 27th, 1862, Ephraim Holloway, bachelor, married Hannah Scaldwell, spinster at the General Baptist Chapel, Chesham. To Croxley Green Ephraim was not only the miller, he was a well-known as a cricketer, playing for Croxley for many years. In sporting prowess, however, he was outshone by his son Jim. Born in 1879, Jim Holloway was the doyen of Croxley cricket – the demon bowler of Croxley Green.
Jim Holloway was for forty-three years a playing member of Croxley’s cricket team, and for twenty-six of those years he was captain. The cricket field in those days was opposite the Red House. In the record book are plentiful records of the Holloway prowess, with “bowled J. Holloway” constantly recurring. Jim once took nine wickets for one run, while in another year he captured a hundred wickets between May 1st and the end of August in Saturday cricket alone. Jim Holloway was seventy when he made his last bow as a player, and the analysis in the score book shows, fittingly, “J. Holloway: 2 wickets for 0 runs”.
Jim continued to serve the Cricket Club as Chairman long after his playing days ended, while his son was by then a team member and Match Secretary. Frank and Horace Holloway also played at the club. Jim Holloway’s own favourite recollection was of being captain of the team when it included Sir Reginald Bonsor. Entering the pavilion before the game, they met, and Captain Holloway enquired of Sir Reginald, “Which position do you prefer to field in, Sir?” “Wherever you place me, Sir” replied Sir Reginald, thus defining their status on the field of play.
The Holloway family gained, I am told, one further distinction in the world of sport, although not a very enviable one. One of the brothers was responsible for a significant change in the rules governing pigeon racing. There was a great deal if interest in the sport in Croxley before the First World War, when it was just becoming organised, and one of the Holloways entered a bird for a trophy race – one carrying also a substantial cash prize. The pigeon, along with several other local entries, was dispatched by rail to the releasing point. and the Croxley owners counter the hours to the return of their fancied entrants.
Long before they were expected the Holloway entry flapped its way tiredly round the mill, was spotted, and as its owner rushed excitedly out, alighted in a nearby tree. Now to claim the prize it was necessary to produce the ring from the bird’s leg, as well as a certificate of the time home. The pigeon-loft was opened, but the pigeon remained in the tree. Grain was sprinkled on the ground, and the anxious owner made clucking noises. There was still no movement from the bird, which now seemed to have gone to sleep, tired by its long journey, no doubt.
The precious minutes were ticking away, and the owner becoming more and more distraught. The prize, he was sure, was almost within his grasp, yet the pigeon still rested comfortably out of reach. There was no time for a ladder, and had it been tried it might well have frightened the bird away. He took a quick decision, rushed indoors for a moment, and within seconds of returning had the bird in his hands – shot.
The ring was removed from the corpse, and crime in this instance paid, for the prize was won, but somehow the story got about. Perhaps some other Croxley owner would have won the prize but for that flash of Holloway quickness of mind. In any event, the rules as they stood then said nothing against the owners shooting the birds. The pigeon-racing press took the matter up, and the rules were altered. Since then the winner of any prize must be able to produce his bird, alive and well, before the trophy is awarded!
An old rhyme runs,
Blow wind, blow, and go Mill, go!
That the Miller may grind his corn,
That the Baker may take it
And into bread make it,
And bring us a loan in the morn.
Frank Holloway, who owned the Mill in the early years of this century, was also Croxley’s baker, and brought us many “a loaf in the morn”. But the Mill will grind no more, and our bread comes to us wrapped from far away. There are still Holloways in Croxley Green, and long may there be, and when the train rattle across the old cricket ground opposite the Red House, perhaps very faintly there is a cry of “Zat!” in the summer sun, as some long-vanished batsman is “Bowled J. Holloway, 0”
Note: The above article was left unfinished by Mr. Paddick
Karl Wood (1888-1958) was born in King's Newton, Melbourne, Derbyshire. He later settled in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire where he was art master at Gainsborough grammar school. He had his own art studio and undertook private tuition in several subjects including painting, piano and singing lessons. Painting tuition resulted in sketching bicycle tours into Lincolnshire with his pupils. His first windmill painting was in 1926 and by 1956 he had completed 1394 windmill paintings. It was Karl Wood's intention to publish a book on British windmills to be called The Twilight of the mills, based on his extensive travels by bicycle, but this was never completed. Karl Wood's paintings are now housed in the Usher Art Gallery, Lincoln.