Hough Windmill is a tower windmill in Swannington, Leicestershire, England built in the late 18th century on the boundary with the village of Thringstone. [1] The mill served a coal mining community. The structure is surrounded by the remains of ancient shallow coal mines and local maps show many footpaths and tracks made by the miners who walked between them. The mill and surrounding area is owned by the Swannington Heritage Trust. [2]
At least five mills were built on high ground to the north of Swannington and were operated by three local milling families, the Griffins, Chesters and the Kerbys. The earliest structures were post mills — a more primitive, less stable but far cheaper design where the entire mill body must be rotated to face the wind. Over the years all succumbed to fire, storm or decay, the last killing its owner when it collapsed in the early 1800s. Dismantled and reassembled nearby, the mill operated until 1895 when the components were sold.
John Griffin built the present structure, replacing a nearby post mill and purchasing land from the Enclosure Commissioners in 1804. The mill was operated by his tenant, James Kerby who paid an annual rent of £30. In 1877, it was sold to John Hough, steward to the Beaumonts of Coleorton, for £1,175, the Kerby family continuing until replaced by the last commercial tenant, Walter Chester. The mill closed early in the 20th century [1] by which time the technology was obsolete. The derelict mill was listed in the 1980s and compulsory purchased by North West Leicestershire District Council who sold it to Swannington Heritage Trust in 1994. The Trust refurbished the mill with the aid of a £70,883 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. It was opened by Mr David Taylor, MP, on 26 March 2000 and attracted 1,600 visitors during the first year. Inside the mill is a poster advertising the sale of a mill on Thringstone common by auction at the New Inn at Peggs Green. Both properties were part of Thringstone Civil Parish until its abolition in April 1936, Hough Mill being part of 70 acres transferred to Swannington whilst the New Inn was part of 98 acres transferred to Coleorton.
The Trust also owns the adjacent 6 acre gorse field, part of an unfarmed ancient common with evidence of hundreds of bell pits for coal mining dating back to 1204. This is being turned into a nature reserve. The replica ginn engine (see photo, left) was funded by the National Forest company.
Next to the Gorse Field is Califat Spinney which includes two engine houses from the coal mine that operated from 1855-1873. [3] One of the mine shafts was called the Alabama shaft. Whilst the date is uncertain, it was practice at the time to name shafts after contemporary events, the CSS Alabama was sunk by the US Navy off the coast of Cherbourg, France in 1864. A horse-drawn tramway carried coal from the Califat mine to the bottom of the Swannington Incline where the winding engine pulled the trucks to the top of the incline to continue its journey along the Leicester and Swannington Railway. In 1863 water entered the Califat mine from a disused mine at Limby Hall. The mine flooded in 11 minutes and three miners were killed.
North West Leicestershire is a local government district in Leicestershire, England. The council is based in Coalville, the area's largest town. The district also contains the towns of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Ashby Woulds and Ibstock, along with numerous villages and surrounding rural areas.
Coalville is a town in the district of North West Leicestershire, Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. In 2011, it had a population of 34,575. It lies on the A511 between Leicester and Burton upon Trent, close to junction 22 of the M1 motorway where the A511 meets the A50 between Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Leicester. It borders the upland area of Charnwood Forest to the east of the town.
The Leicester and Swannington Railway (L&SR) was one of England's first railways, built to bring coal from West Leicestershire collieries to Leicester, where there was great industrial demand for coal. The line opened in 1832, and included a tunnel over a mile in length, and two rope-worked inclined planes; elsewhere it was locomotive-operated, and it carried passengers.
Whitwick is a village and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England, close to the town of Coalville in the northwest of the county. It lies in an ancient parish which formerly included the equally historic villages of Thringstone and Swannington.
The Charnwood Forest Canal, sometimes known as the "Forest Line of the Leicester Navigation", was opened between Thringstone and Nanpantan, with a further connection to Barrow Hill, near Worthington, in 1794
Big Pit National Coal Museum is an industrial heritage museum in Blaenavon, Torfaen, Wales. A working coal mine from 1880 to 1980, it was opened to the public in 1983 as a charitable trust called the Big Pit (Blaenavon) Trust. By 1 February 2001 Big Pit Coal Museum was incorporated into the National Museums and Galleries of Wales as the National Mining Museum of Wales. The site is dedicated to operational preservation of the Welsh heritage of coal mining, which took place during the Industrial Revolution.
A horse mill is a mill, sometimes used in conjunction with a watermill or windmill, that uses a horse engine as the power source. Any milling process can be powered in this way, but the most frequent use of animal power in horse mills was for grinding grain and pumping water. Other animal engines for powering mills are powered by dogs, donkeys, oxen or camels. Treadwheels are engines powered by humans.
Newbold Verdon is a village and civil parish in the county of Leicestershire, England. The parish includes Newbold Heath to the north and Brascote to the south. Originally an agricultural centre Newbold Verdon grew in size during the 1850s with the expansion of coal mining in the area. That industry has now ceased leaving Newbold Verdon as a commuter village primarily serving Leicester and Hinckley. The 2001 census recorded a population of 3,193, which had reduced to 3,012 at the 2011 census.
Snibston is an area and former civil parish east of Ravenstone, now in the parish of Ravenstone with Snibstone, in the North West Leicestershire district, in the county of Leicestershire, England. Originally rural, part of Snibston was transformed into a coal mining village by the opening of coal mines by the Snibston Colliery Company in the early 1830s. This industrial part of Snibston was subsequently subsumed into the developing town of Coalville, though small rural areas of Snibston survive within the civil parishes of Ravenstone with Snibston and Hugglescote and Donington le Heath. In the part of Snibston within the latter civil parish stands the 13th-century church of St Mary, noted as the smallest church still in use for regular worship in England. The main Snibston Colliery was sunk in 1831, and after its closure the Snibston Country Park with the Snibston Discovery Museum was built on part of the colliery site. Part of the park is Snibston Grange Local Nature Reserve.
Thringstone is a village in the North West Leicestershire district, in Leicestershire, England. About 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Coalville, it lies in the English National Forest.
The Anson Engine Museum is situated on the site of the old Anson colliery in Poynton, Cheshire, England. It is the work of Les Cawley and Geoff Challinor who began collecting and showing stationary engines for a hobby. The museum now has one of the largest collections of engines in Europe. The museum site also includes a working blacksmith's smithy and carpentry shop and a café.
The Shropshire Canal was a tub boat canal built to supply coal, ore and limestone to the industrial region of east Shropshire, England, that adjoined the River Severn at Coalbrookdale. It ran from a junction with the Donnington Wood Canal ascending the 316 yard long Wrockwardine Wood inclined plane to its summit level, it made a junction with the older Ketley Canal and at Southall Bank the Coalbrookdale (Horsehay) branch went to Brierly Hill above Coalbrookdale; the main line descended via the 600 yard long Windmill Incline and the 350 yard long Hay Inclined Plane to Coalport on the River Severn. The short section of the Shropshire Canal from the base of the Hay Inclined Plane to its junction with the River Severn is sometimes referred to as the Coalport Canal.
Swannington is a former mining village situated between Coalville and Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England. A document of 1520 mentions five pits at Swannington. It was a terminus of the early (1832) Leicester and Swannington Railway that was built to serve the townships of Swannington and Thringstone and is built on a spot reputedly chosen by William Wordsworth, a frequent guest of Sir George Beaumont of nearby Coleorton Hall. It is possible that the dedication of the church to Saint George is derived from its association with this George Beaumont.
Bagworth is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Bagworth and Thornton, in the Hinckley and Bosworth district, in Leicestershire, England, 9 miles (14 km) west of Leicester. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1568.
Coleorton is a village and civil parish in North West Leicestershire, England. It is situated on the A512 road approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Ashby de la Zouch. Nearby villages include Newbold, to the north, Thringstone to the east, and Swannington to the south-east.
Peggs Green is a hamlet within the parish of Coleorton, Leicestershire. For many years it had formed part of the civil parish of Thringstone, until this was dissolved in 1936.
William Stenson (1770–1861) was a mining engineer born in Coleorton, Leicestershire.
Newbold otherwise Newbold Coleorton is a large hamlet in the parish of Worthington, Leicestershire, England. It is situated in the North West Leicestershire district, approximately midway between the town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch and the village of Whitwick, just to the north of the B5324 route.
Parys Mountain Windmill is a Grade II listed building located on the highest point of Parys Mountain near Amlwch, Anglesey, Wales. The structure was built in 1878 to assist a local copper mine in the removal of water from mine shafts. It was the last tower mill built in Wales. The windmill remained in use until the mine's closure in 1904.
The Califat Coal Mine began in 1852, when William Worswick signed a lease with Wyggeston Hospital, Leicester. The Coleorton No 2 Colliery was then sunk. It was named after the town of Calafat, now in Romania, then in the Ottoman Empire, which was under siege by Russian forces. The site has been subject to various excavations and restorations since the 1960s.