Mr Green buys a plot of land in the village of Sneinton on which he
builds his windmill. A small wooden post mill, which already occupies the site,
is not included in the sale and it is moved a few hundred yards further up Windmill
Lane. Mr Green's mill is the most powerful and up-to-date of the twenty or so
windmills in and around Nottingham.
Mr Green builds a fine house next
to the mill and the family, including his son George,
move out of the noisome overcrowding of the town.
Old Mr Green dies, leaving the mill and other property to George, by
now a fairly wealthy man. Two years later, during the Reform Bill riots, an
angry mob attacks the mill. George defends his property by firing his musket
from the mill whilst his eldest daughter Jane passes the ammunition.
George Green lets out his mill and becomes a student at Caius College,
Cambridge, where he continues his studies. He becomes a Fellow of his college
and writes scientific papers on such subjects as wave motion, the behaviour of
light, crystal structure and the elasticity of materials.
George Green's health fails him and he dies in Sneinton. He is buried
in the churchyard of St Stephen's, close by his windmill.
The mill is still producing flour as it is advertised in the Nottingham
Mercury:
'To let and may be entered upon in November next. That excellent Smock
windmill situate at Snenton, Near Nottingham (built by the late Mr Green) with
granaries, stabling for eight horses, hay chamber, miller's house and tenement
adjoining, spacious garden, large yard etc. now in the occupancy of
Mr Fletcher.'
A photograph of the mill and Mill House c.1860 shows the mill to still
be working. The following year the census records one William Oakland as the
miller. But the mill has become uneconomic when faced with competition from the
new steam powered roller mills and is soon to come to the end of its working
life. The mill is abandoned and the sails removed. William Oakland moves to a
post mill nearby on Windmill Lane, the last windmill to operate in Nottingham.
The fantail frame at the back of the cap crashes through the roof of
the mill foreman's cottage, destroying - it is said - a grand piano. The wooden
gallery rots away and the boards covering the cap begin to fall away as the
nails rust. But a mill tower is not without its uses and it is possibly used as
a dovecote or pigeon loft.
Clara Green, George's last surviving child, dies and the mill is bought
by Oliver Hind, a local solicitor. Four years later he has the cap covered in
copper to keep out the weather. The mill machinery and stones are still in the
mill. The mill is let to H Gell and Co who use the ground floor and first floor
to manufacture furniture polish and boot polish. A lot of these materials are
stored in the mill.
On the 10th July the mill catches fire. The lower floors are full of
wax and polish and with the mill tower acting as a chimney the blaze rapidly
takes hold in the brisk wind. Only the brick tower survives, a few charred
beams still spanning the interior. The mill is abandoned once again.
Responding to a rumour that the mill might be demolished, staff at
Nottingham University start a fund to preserve the tower as a monument to George
Green whose reputation as a mathematical genius has been growing. Five years
later the Fund buy the mill and present it to the City of Nottingham and
restoration starts.
With new floors, doors and windows in place, the new cap is hoisted
onto the top of the tower by a crane.
The restoration is placed in the hands of professional millwrights to
bring the mill into working order. A science centre is built around the mill
yard to tell the story of George Green and his mill.
The mill and centre are officially opened to the public though there is
still much work to be done on the mill.
In June the sails are finally hoisted into place though it is not until
2nd December that the sails turn and flour is produced in Green's Mill for the
first time since the 1860s.
On the Bicentenary of his birth a plaque in honour of George Green is dedicated in Westminster Abbey. In the top corner of the stone is carved a windmill.
This
information is Ó Southwold
Primary School. Copying for Educational Purposes is allowed.
The text is copyright Ó Friends of Green’s Mill
and used with their permission