Monument record PSM 025 - Priory Farm

Aerial photograph showing circular earthwork within Priory Farm (S1). Site of windmill. Earthworks are a shallow depression 6m in diameter. Something hard 6ins down - probably the foundations of the brick roundhouse of a post mill. 1839 tithe map shows mill standing, 1885 OS map shows mill disused. Not shown on 1904 map. Thorpe mentions that a shed is shown between the earthworks and corner of the road to the S and a slightly hollow trackway leads past it up to the mill. Also that a gate is still embedded in the hedge at this point (S2). According to Flint, first mapped in 1824 and gone by 1902 (S3).

1998: Excavation of the mill site was undertaken simultaneously with PSM 002. The excavation revealed the robbed our wall foundations enclosing a small octagonal area of the base of the mill. The robbed foundation was backfilled with broken bricks and mortar, indicating the mill stood on a brick base, with a small pad of four bricks being located in within the mill. This probably supposed wooden beams for the mill floor and machinery. On the southern side of the mill was an area of cobbling formed with small 2-5cm diameter rounded and angular flints laid on the natural subsoil. On the south site of the mill was fragments of mill stone, laid as a surface and may possibly be a doorstep. Overlying the cobbled surface and forming a circular pattered around the robbed foundation trench was a quantity of black tarry pit. This is probably excess pitch, which has been applied to the exterior of the mill and run of, indicated the mill was clad with wood. A large quantity of iron fittings were recovered during the excavation, the majority of which being nails. A linear feature identified during the geophysical survey was seen to align with a small gate on the northern edge , upon excavation this was found to comprise a hard compacted flint surface and interpreted as a roadway (S5).