Holgate Windmill, York’s last surviving windmill and the oldest 5-sailed windmill in the country is now fully restored and producing traditional stone-ground flour.

Holgate Windmill’s builder and first miller was George Waud. He was born in Barlow near Selby in 1717 and bought the land here on 27th December 1768. By October 1770 the Mill was working and George was living in the Mill house with his family. The Mill was built in open countryside looking over the hamlet of Holgate which was centred around the junction of Acomb Road and Poppleton Road near to ‘The Fox Inn’. These roads provided a direct route for the grain from local farms to the Mill and much of the high quality flour that George produced would have been taken into York. The original horse and cart track to the Mill survives, in narrowed form, as a snicket from Acomb Road.

Holgate Windmill Preservation Society was formed in November 2001 after some local residents became worried about the condition of the mill. At that stage no work had been done on the mill for a number of years and this resulted in noticeable deterioration to the fabric of this Grade II listed building.

Since then, the society has raised more than £500,000 to complete the restoration of the mill to working order. We now regularly produce our traditional stone-ground wholemeal flour both for sale in the mill, and for a number of artisan bakeries locally. The project would not have been possible without the support of our local community, the people of York, City of York Council and of course our very generous sponsors

Visit their website here