Holgate Windmill

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Holgate Windmill Welcome to Holgate Windmill, York’s last surviving windmill and the country’s oldest five‑sailed mill. We’re open year‑round for open days and special events.
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Step inside, watch milling in action (wind permitting), and take home a bag of our flour. Holgate Windmill was built in 1770 and worked until 1933. It has recently been restored by the Holgate Windmill Preservation Society and now produces stoneground flour once again. It is open throughout the year, please see our leaflet or website for details, for you to see the sails turning and see how flour is produced. Also see our website for details of special events and exhibitions. We are open by arrangement for school parties, and group tours. Please note we have steep ladders and steps which are not accessible for pushchairs and those with restricted mobility. On the 1 bus route along Acomb Road. Get off opposite the Holgate Methodist Church and walk up snicket. On the 10 bus route along Poppleton Road. Walk up Windmill Rise

At the very top of Holgate Windmill sits the ball finial. And hidden inside it is a time capsule. Placed there during th...
22/10/2026

At the very top of Holgate Windmill sits the ball finial. And hidden inside it is a time capsule.

Placed there during the restoration, it contains a glimpse of the mill and York around 2010, including a York Press newspaper, a copy of the original Holgate Windmill booklet, a photograph of the HWPS committee, and a greetings card featuring the mill.

It's following an old milling tradition—leaving something behind for the people who care for the mill generations from now. We rather like that idea.

21/10/2026

🧹 Broomsticks at the ready!

Looking for something fun to do with the kids this Saturday?

Our Mini Millers are getting ready for Halloween by making broomsticks from collected twigs at Holgate Windmill.

Come along, get crafty and create a broom worthy of the finest witch or wizard. We can’t guarantee it'll get you home afterwards, though. 🎃

📅 Saturday 24 October
⏰ 10am–12.30pm — drop in anytime
🎟 Free for children | £5 for adults
📍 Holgate Windmill
✨ No booking required

We’d love to see you there!

Look closely at some of Holgate's machinery and you'll find something unexpected: wooden cogs. And there's a perfect rea...
20/10/2026

Look closely at some of Holgate's machinery and you'll find something unexpected: wooden cogs.

And there's a perfect reason for them. Wood helps reduce noise and vibration, doesn't create sparks in a dusty flour mill, and can act as a sacrificial component if something goes badly wrong—protecting the much more expensive iron machinery.

Fruit woods such as apple, pear, and cherry were traditionally used because they're naturally oily.

Sometimes the apparently old-fashioned solution is actually rather clever engineering.

Historic buildings don’t survive by accident.Holgate Windmill has stood in York since the 18th century, but keeping a wo...
17/10/2026

Historic buildings don’t survive by accident.

Holgate Windmill has stood in York since the 18th century, but keeping a working windmill alive takes an extraordinary amount of skill, care and determination.

Over the years, the mill has undergone major restoration work — repairing its structure, restoring machinery and bringing parts of the mill back into working order.

These photographs show just a little of that journey.

Today, on International Repair Day, we’re celebrating the idea that sometimes the most valuable things aren’t replaced.

They’re repaired, cared for and passed on.

And thanks to the work of volunteers and supporters over many years, Holgate Windmill can continue turning its sails for another generation.

Much of Holgate Windmill changed during its working life as new technology was introduced. But one extraordinary piece o...
15/10/2026

Much of Holgate Windmill changed during its working life as new technology was introduced.

But one extraordinary piece of machinery survives from the original 1770 mill. On the Dust Floor you'll find the mill's huge wooden drive shaft, made from a single pine tree trunk.

When the tower was raised during the major alterations of 1857–58, this original shaft was lifted upwards along with the cap and sails.

A new cast-iron section was then installed beneath it. So one of the oldest pieces of the mill now sits inside one of its newer floors.

It’s National Baking Week, and we can think of an excellent place for baking to begin…With the flour.Here at Holgate Win...
14/10/2026

It’s National Baking Week, and we can think of an excellent place for baking to begin…

With the flour.

Here at Holgate Windmill, grain is still milled using traditional machinery inside the mill, connecting the food we make today with centuries of milling history.

Bread, cakes, biscuits, pastry…

What would you bake first with a bag of Holgate flour?

13/10/2026

Imagine carrying a sack of grain up five floors of ladders.

Fortunately, Holgate's millers had a better solution. The mill contains a sack-hoist powered by the windmill itself.

A friction drive takes power from the machinery and raises sacks from the ground floor all the way to the Dust Floor.

As the sack rises, it pushes through three sets of wooden trapdoors. The doors open upwards — then immediately fall shut again once the sack has passed.

A wonderfully simple solution to a very heavy problem.

08/10/2026

Milling isn't simply a case of letting the stones spin.

One of the miller's most important skills is tentering — carefully controlling the gap between the two millstones. Too wide and the grain won't be milled properly. Too close and the stones could touch and overheat.

So how did the miller know when everything was right? By regularly feeling the flour as it came from the stones and making tiny adjustments. Quite literally, a rule of thumb.

At Holgate the gap can be roughly the thickness of brown paper near the centre of the stones, narrowing towards something as fine as tissue paper near the edge.

🎃 Get ready for Halloween at Holgate Windmill! 🧹Our next Mini Millers session is getting a little bit spooky…Join us on ...
07/10/2026

🎃 Get ready for Halloween at Holgate Windmill! 🧹

Our next Mini Millers session is getting a little bit spooky…

Join us on Saturday 24 October and make your very own broomstick using collected twigs.

Will it fly? Probably not.
Will it sweep? We’re making no promises.
Will it be fun to make? Absolutely!

📅 Saturday 24 October
⏰ Drop in between 10am–12.30pm
🎟 Free for children | £5 for adults
📍 Holgate Windmill

There’s no need to book - just drop in and get crafting.

06/10/2026

Which way do Holgate Windmill’s sails turn?

If you stand facing the mill, the sails turn anti-clockwise. That means the millstones inside turn clockwise.

This is the usual arrangement for windmills, although there are exceptions. One of the unusual clockwise-turning examples can be found at Burgh-le-Marsh in Lincolnshire.

It’s one of those tiny details you might never notice until someone points it out - and then you’ll probably check every time you see the sails moving.

Address

Windmill Rise
York
YO264TX

Opening Hours

Wednesday 10am - 12:30pm
Friday 10am - 12:30pm
Saturday 10am - 12:30pm

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