Windmill's of my Mind...

On my way to see a friend for lunch in Beverley today on this chilly May Day Bank Holiday Monday, I passed Skidby windmill in rural East Yorkshire, just one village away from where I was brought up. The mill has been in working order for as long as I remember it and it’s just gone through a refurbishment on its sails and it was a lovely sight, seeing the sails gently turning in the strong breeze today.

It’s ages since I wrote anything about the area where I live, so I thought you might like a potted history of the mill. Skidby is a small village north of Hull in a lovely part of rural East Yorkshire surrounded by fields. Originally found by the Danes in 892 AD give or take a few years and mentioned in the Domesday Book , the name Skidby came into use around 1566 from the original names of ‘Scteby’ and ‘Schitebi’ in Domesday. Today, the population is just under 1400 souls.

It had a Manor House for the Lord of the Manor, the Duke of Northumberland and a gallows for hanging 'sheep stealers,' today marked by a clump of trees named Gallows Hill. When threatened with a Spanish invasion in 1584, it even had 36 able men ready to repel the enemy.

The original mill dates back to 1388, and by the 1600s there were two mills. The mill you see today replaced a small mill that had been on the site in 1821 and it is reputed to be the last working mill in Yorkshire producing different types of flour from locally grown grain. You can go and visit it today and entry to the mill is a small fee.



Even today, as we pass in the car and if the sails are turning, we ask the kids if they can see the sails moving, perhaps they're getting pissed off with that considering they're 19, 22 and 23!

Thanks to here for some of the information on Skidby and you can get details of the mill and visiting etc., from here.

Hope you've managed to keep warm this weekend.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.