Langton Matravers (1)

Tithe Map (c1840) "Twelve acres by windmill"

1st Edition OS map "Windmill Knapp" shown

2nd Edtn 6" OS map "Windmill Barn & Windmill Knapp"

Present OS map

Google Map

The Windmill

The Millers None known

Present site condition

Notes and comments

Just to the west of Swanage, on higher ground approximately on the 200 feet contour, there are several references to a former windmill in this area. Taylor's Map of Dorset of 1765 clearly shows the Old Windmill.

A deed of 1656^[1] (CRO) refers to Windmill ground.........with the windmill that stands thereon, the Windmillhowse.

There is a reference to a Langton windmill in Sellers Coasting Pilot of 1677 :

Having navigated from the Isle of Wight, he advises sailors wanting to anchor in Swanage Bay - “In the Bay a little to the Northward of Sanwich lieth a round Hommock, and thwart of it, somewhat within the Land, standeth a Mill, bring that Mill on the south side of the round Hommock, and sail in until you come into four or three fathoms of water ... “

(Source : My thanks to Gwenda Yeomans for sending the above reference via e mail December 2019)

In the Encombe Estate Archive there is a record of "Purchases from Garland" (DCRO Ref D/SEN/18/3/18) on 2nd February 1805 including 1,2 to 3, 4 : Leeson Farm, Langton Matravers (tenants William Checkford, Henry Checkford, Joan Checkford) including Windmill Ground and Ballchester with windmill (40a)........................House and Westway Close, plot of pasture, Windmill House and Windmill Close, Langton Matravers (tenant Charles Meader)

The Tithe Apportionment and map records Windmill Grounds (ref 262) with (ref 261) Twelve Acres by Windmill to the south of this.

The 2nd edition 6" OS map shows Windmill Barn to the west of Windmill Knapp. It is said that the ruins of a stone tower windmill were visible at the Knapp in Victorian times and that the tower had been built from the stone from a demolished mediaeval Purbeck Ranger's Lodge.^[2] There is nothing visible whatsoever today although it is easy to see that this is a superb windmill site in the middle of the large coastal plain leading down to Swanage.

^[1] Mills AD, Place Names of Dorset Part 1 p 40

^[2] Rodney Legg, Swanage Encyclopaedic Guide 1995 - p124.