Firstly let us make it plain that although the title of the group mentions Lincolnshire, the county is merely the centre of the area that we serve, not the limits.

In the late 18th Century, the engineer John Smeaton from Leeds developed a device for fastening any chosen number of sails on a windmill. The device was widely adopted in Lincolnshire and became known as the Lincolnshire Cross, and it is the large area that this was adopted that is served by Lincolnshire Mills Group. The committee have debated over many years for a more accurate title, but we can find no handy word that describes the parts of England from the East Midlands to East Yorkshire that we serve. If you can think of one we’d like to know!

This region saw the windmill reach the height of its technology with the tall elegant brick tower topped by a distinctive onion-shaped or ‘ogee’ cap. A feature peculiar to this region is the cast-iron Lincolnshire Cross, which allows mills to be built with any number of sails. The area boasts 4, 5, 6 and even 8-sailed windmills.

Lincolnshire Mills Group serves the whole of the North-East Midlands region where the Lincolnshire Cross was used. Although this region is defined by its windmill technology, the area has many fine watermills ranging from village corn-mills to industrial water-powered factories. We are here for all sorts of mills. Watermills, tide mills, wind pumps, steam mills, animal mills and pulleys - in fact any sort of mill, with any sort of power. Most of our members are interested in all sorts of industrial archaeology, and the boundaries between different specialities are often blurred.