Discover Chesterton Windmill: a local treasure

What precious landmarks, objects or places lie within your region? For the West Midlands Area of The Arts Society, this windmill is close to the hearts of those who live there

‘As the wind swept round its sails’, Chesterton Mill photographed by @sage_solar/Wikimedia Commons

When The Arts Society marked its 50th anniversary in 2018, the idea of each Area of the organisation choosing 50 local treasures was born. Among the pieces and landmarks chosen by the West Midlands Area is this, the Chesterton Windmill.

This beacon of a building stands some five miles south-east of Warwick, high on a hilltop overlooking the Roman Fosse Way and the pastoral parish of Chesterton. Now Grade I listed, it was built around 1632–33 and was commissioned by Sir Edward Peyto (1590–1643), Lord of Chesterton Manor.

Peyto was a man with a passion for architecture, astronomy and mathematics. With connections in high places it’s possible he knew the influential architect of the time, Inigo Jones. Some say it was Jones who designed the mill, but there is no firm evidence this was so. Peyto himself may have been the designer.

What is certain is that Chesterton is no ordinary mill.

Image: Dean Williams/Alamy Stock Photo

Such is its style that the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner queried whether it had originally been an observatory or a gazebo – yet it was definitely a working mill. Eleven metres tall, its unique design sees the working part of the mill set on six pillars with elegant semicircular arches linking them. Remarkably, several accounts of its construction survive, detailing the names of the craftsmen involved and fees paid.

Beautiful and useful, the mill continued to work grinding corn until shortly before World War I. It still retains its working parts and, now under the care of Warwickshire County Council, is occasionally open to the public. While its story makes this structure a draw for historians, for locals Chesterton Windmill is simply a cherished landmark, worth the climb on any day.

Chesterton Windmill as it appeared in Penny Magazine, 3 December 1836. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Discover more treasures

Chesterton Windmill features in 50 Treasures of the West Midlands Area; for more on The Arts Society series of 50 Treasures books, see theartssociety.org/50-Treasures. To find out more about becoming a member of The Arts Society, see theartssociety.org/member-benefits