CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

West Kingsdown Windmill

Grade II listed windmill in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, UK

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 24, 2025
Entity authorityQ7985632 ↗
Source-derived summary

West Kingsdown Windmill is a Grade II listed smock mill in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, that was built in the early nineteenth century at Farningham and moved to West Kingsdown in 1880. It is the survivor of a pair of windmills.

History

Post mill

William Coles Finch stated that the post mill was originally built at Sevenoaks. However, the mill may have been built on site c.1804, when it was advertised for sale in the Kentish gazette of 25 September 1804.

In 1880, it was joined by the smock mill that was moved from Farningham and which survives today. The post mill was burnt down in May 1909 when a steam roller set fire to some straw near the mill and the fire then spread to the mill.

Smock mill

West Kingsdown Windmill was built in the early nineteenth century at Chimham's Farm, Farningham. It was marked on the 1819–20 Ordnance Survey map, Greenwoods map of 1821 and the Farningham Tithe Map of 1840. In 1880, it was moved to West Kingsdown, joining a post mill that was already there. The post mill burnt down in May 1909.

Editorial summary

“West Kingsdown Windmill” enters the record as grade II listed windmill in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, UK. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what West, Kingsdown and Windmill can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1880, 1804, 1909, 1819—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around West, Kingsdown and Windmill.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“West Kingsdown Windmill” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, West, Kingsdown and Windmill provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 24, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7985632. Authority coordinates are 51.337, 0.270. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1880, 1804, 1909 and 1819.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “West Kingsdown Windmill”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow West Kingsdown Windmill primary sources, West Kingsdown Windmill archive and West research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “West Kingsdown Windmill”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “West Kingsdown Windmill” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.