This tall, 5 sailed tower mill was built in 1819 by Norman and Smithson, millwrights of Hull for the Reckitt brothers, Isaac and Thomas, later to find fame with “Reckitts Blue.”

 

The mill is known as the Maud Foster Mill after the adjacent waterway and houses 3 pairs of stones.

 

The Reckitts were not very successful as millers and the mill was sold off in 1835.

 

Over the following years various owners added extra machinery to the site including an engine driven mill and a mill for the grinding of bones to make fertiliser.

In later years there were two mill houses on the site and an extensive millwrights shop.

 

In 1914 the mill was bought by Alfred Ostler, who would run it until it ceased work.

 

The mill ceased work in 1948 due to mechanical problems and the milling business was gradually wound down.

By the 1960s the buildings surrounding the mill were in use as a poultry factory.

 

From the end of the 1970s the mill was neglected until the mid 1980s when a housing firm wanted to demolish the outbuildings and convert the mill into flats for wardens.

This plan fortunately was rejected by Boston Borough Council.

 

In 1987 the mill was bought by the Waterfield family who had restored a mill in Suffolk .

They set about putting Maud Foster Mill into full working order, the work including 3 new sails.

The mill started working again in the Summer of 1988 and is now the most productive windmill in the country.