There was a windmill in Oakington by the late 13th century, owned by the manor of Crowland Abbey. Initially there was a miller employed by the lord of the manor, but from 1279 the mill was leased to tenants. It was the only mill in the parish in 1334. However, there are no rent or repair records for it after the 1380s, so this early mill may have fallen out of use. It is not known whether it stood on the same location as the later windmill shown in the photograph above, although it may have done as that area of land (encompassing the northern part of Oakington parish) was known as Mill Field during the medieval period.
A windmill was recorded on the Queens’ College estate (previously the Crowland manor estate) in the early 1800s, in the southeast corner of Mill Field. It was rebuilt after a fire in 1863, and by the 1870s was run by the Papworth family who also had a bakery in the village.
The mill had an adjacent steam engine, the tall tower of which can be seen in the 1905 photograph above, to drive the mill when there was no wind. This was later replaced by an oil engine. The windmill part was dismantled in 1929 but the mill itself continued to be powered by the oil engine until into the 1930s. It milled oilseed at this time.
The mill was blown up in 1940 as part of the construction of RAF Oakington, as it was considered a danger to flying aircraft. The datestone (1865) now forms the base of the Oakington village sign on the village green.
Sources include:
- Cambridgeshire Windmills
- ‘Oakington: Introduction’, in A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 9, Chesterton, Northstowe, and Papworth Hundreds, ed. A P M Wright, C P Lewis( London, 1989), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol9/pp192-195 [accessed 17 September 2024]
- Records and photographs of Ralph Warboys
See also: Mill Road
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