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Dunbar, Oxwell Mains, Windmill

Wind Pump (Early 19th Century), Windmill (Early 19th Century)

Site Name Dunbar, Oxwell Mains, Windmill

Classification Wind Pump (Early 19th Century), Windmill (Early 19th Century)

Alternative Name(s) Oxwellmains; Windpump

Canmore ID 58804

Site Number NT77NW 2

NGR NT 70196 76309

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/58804

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council East Lothian
  • Parish Dunbar
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District East Lothian
  • Former County East Lothian

Archaeology Notes

NT77NW 2 70196 76309.

(NT 70196 76309) Windmill (NAT) (disused)

OS 6" map (1970)

All that remains of this windmill is a truncated cone of masonry some 4.5m high. Its diameter at the base is 3.0m over walls 0.6m thick. There is a low doorway in the NW side.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 23 March 1966

The remains of a small windmill stand in a hollow 200 yds SW of Oxwellmains farm. Constructed of rubble and freestone, the tower is 15ft high. The internal ground diameter is 6ft 3 ins and top diameter 2ft 6 ins on walls 1ft 9 ins thick. There is one small door in the W arc 2ft 3 ins by 4ft. At a height of 2ft from the ground a series of holes, each 6 ins in diameter, encircle the tower at 3ft intervals. The opening is surmounted by a sandstone lintel and coping stones of the same material surround the top of the tower.

This mill, which dates from the late 18th century, appears to have been used for pumping water. This mill must be the smallest surviving in Scotland; it seems likely that any machinery was situated outwith the tower itself. Mr J Reid, millwright, thinks that it was a windpump.

A second windmill is recorded at NT 703 763 on Fowler's 1824 map of Haddingtonshire. It does not survive, but was probably larger than that described above, built as a meal or threshing mill.

I L Donnachie and N K Stewart 1967.

Old Wind Pump, Oxwell Mains

This structure, the masonry housing for a windpump, stands about 300 yards SW of Oxwell Mains by the lip of a large limestone quarry, now abandoned. The pump was no doubt intended to keep the quarry dry. It is built of rubble with lime mortar and is round, hollow and tapering. At ground level it is 8 feet 6 inches in diameter over a wall 1 foot 10 inches thick; but it narrows at its total height of about 15 feet to an estimated 5 feet, the topmost 2 feet being cylindrical. On the W, at ground-level, there is a square-headed opening 3 feet 6 inches high by 2 feet 10 inches wide, before the S jamb was damaged. The interior is featureless. At 2 feet 6 inches above ground level, a ring of eight holes 4 inches wide penetrate 1 foot 2 inches into the outer face; they are irregularly spaced and suggest sockets for poles supporting an internal shelf or platform.

Angus Graham 1966.

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