Skidby Windmill
OS grid reference:- TA 020 333
Skidby Mill is a working four-sailed tower windmill at Skidby near the town of Beverley, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The Grade II listed building is now the last working windmill in East Yorkshire.
The windmill is s et in over an acre of land with superb views over the Yorkshire Wolds. The mill is unusual in still having all its original outbuildings around the courtyard. Some of these have been converted to form the Museum of East Riding Rural Life.
In the Museum of East Riding Rural Life there are two exhibition galleries - the Agriculture Gallery which looks at the agricultural history of the East Riding of Yorkshire, and the Village Life Gallery which has displays on many varied aspects of rural village life.
Skidby Mill was built in 1821 by millwrights Norman and Smithson of Hull and replaced an earlier post mill which once occupied the same site.
The mill was further extended to its current 5 stories in 1870. From 1854 until 1962 the mill was owned by the Thompson family, who also owned a steam roller mill in Hull and a water mill at Welton. In 1962 the Thompson sold the business to Allied Mills, but Joseph Thompson persuaded the company to sell the mill to Beverley Rural District Council to use as a museum. In 1974 the mill was restored to full working order using wind power.
Directions
Skidby Windmill is situated four miles south of Beverley. Follow the brown signs off the A164. From the A164 turn towards Skidby at the roundabout, then turn left off Main Street before entering the village itself. The mill is about half a mile on the right.