Dobson's Mill, Burgh le Marsh

One of the best preserved of the County’s mills, this tower mill was built in 1813 by Oxley of Alford. It is shown on an Estate map of 1819 as having four sails. These are said to have been common sails operated from a stage but in my opinion it has always had patent sails. The stage is now missing but the filled-in putlog holes can be made out at second floor level, where the two door openings have been partly filled in and converted to windows. As the stage only relied on the putlogs for support it cannot have been wide enough to reef common sails from. I also believe it could have originally had five sails as it does at present, like Alford mill which was also erected in 1813 by Oxley. Unlike Alford mill however this mill has ‘left-handed’ sails, that is they rotate clockwise when viewed from the front. It worked by wind, assisted by an oil engine latterly, until 1964 when Edwin Dobson gave up the business.. In 1974 Lincolnshire County Council took over and in 1984 it was set to work again, staffed by volunteer millers on special open days.

The five patent sails drive through a composite brake wheel with iron hub, spokes and teeth and a wooden rim. The brake band is also of iron. The wallower is of iron with mortised wooden cogs, an unusual type in the County. The sackhoist is driven from the underside of the wallower and as is often found uses an endless chain which saves having to lower the chain after each sack is raised.

There are two bin floors, both divided up by partitions and the stones are on the second floor. The two pairs of greys and one pair of French are driven in the usual manner by an iron great spur wheel, mortice stone nuts and an iron upright shaft. A fourth ‘nut’ engages with the spur wheel and formerly took the drive from the auxiliary oil engine. By putting the wallower out of gear it was possible to then drive the ‘wind’ stones by engine if desired.

The first floor, in addition to containing the windmill tentering gear, governor and spouts, has a pair of grey stones directly underdriven from the engine by way of bevel gears. The ground floor contains more engine- driven machinery consisting of a Hunt Corn Crushing Mill (or roller mill), a mixer by Thompsons of Alford (for making up animal feeds) and an elevator for moving stock around when the wind-powered hoist is not in use. The Blackstone diesel engine from Addlethorpe mill is to be installed to replace the original which had been disposed of.