At a family funeral the normal 'tales from the past' brought up a rumour of the windmill at Plessey having been built by a distant relative – Henderson; Stonemason; Bentinck, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Seeing photos of some local sites, including the windmill, posted by a new member to this site -'Brillo' – reminded me of the rumours so I did some' Googling' and found a path starting with Wikipedia and ending up on the English Heritage site.

There is not enough info on the stone mason that built the windmill to link to my relatives to it's construction.

If anyone has any info or rumours on this windmill then please post them and I will see what I can find out. 

 

The path I took to get info was:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_windmills_in_the_United_Kingdom#Northumberland

 

Northumberland

 

Plessey

Plessey Mill
NZ 238 789

Tower

 

1749^[68]

Windmill World

Clicking on the [68] gave a ling to

[68]"OLD WINDMILL 700 METRES SOUTH WEST OF PLESSEY CHECKS ROUNDABOUT, BLYTH, BLYTH VALLEY, NORTHUMBERLAND". English Heritage. Retrieved 21 May 2009.

Clicking on this link takes you to:-

http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=235986

Click on the link  The National Heritage List for England

And it takes you to:-

http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1041378

 

and this, FINAL, page on the English Heritage site gives you :-

Details

PLESSEY, Blyth Valley NZ 27 NW NZ 238789 3/22 Old Windmill 700 metres south- West of Plessey Checks roundabout II Windmill tower, dated 1749 with initials M W (Matthew White) on lintel of south door. Good-quality squared stone. Straight-sided round tower without any external division between the 3 floor levels. Chamfered plinth. Opposed doorways on ground floor, 3 small windows on each upper floor; all openings in chamfered surrounds. Interior: 2 plain lst-floor fireplaces, various sockets for floor beams and machinery. 

There is a small book available on the history of Plessey - mother got it from one of the libraries around here and perhaps the shop at the park would have it - that had some information on the windmill, although not a great deal. It's still an interesting read. Apparently it's quite a rare construction as, unlike traditional windmills, its walls are vertical, rather than tapering.

There is a small book available on the history of Plessey - mother got it from one of the libraries around here and perhaps the shop at the park would have it - that had some information on the windmill, although not a great deal. It's still an interesting read. Apparently it's quite a rare construction as, unlike traditional windmills, its walls are vertical, rather than tapering.

Thanks Mercury. Could be tempted to buy but as you say, and what I have found over the last  couple of days, not a lot of info - apart from the 'vertical walls', 'Matthew White' and '1749'. 

yes the book Plessey interesting read .Published by NCC

Edited March 18, 201412 yr by tonyg