Isaac Reckitt

Isaac Reckitt

 

 

Mill circa 1900

Mill and staff - c1900

 

 

 

Before repair - 1987

Before repair - 1987

1819 - and all that

This fine example of an English tower mill was built in 1819 for the brothers Thomas and Isaac Reckitt by the Hull millwrights Norman and Smithson, for the sum of £1,826 – 10s – 6d. Remarkably, the original contracts from the building of the mill still survive.

The Reckitt brothers carried on their business as millers, corn factors and bakers. In the 1820s a bakehouse was added, and a steam engine was installed to supply power to a bone mill (where bones were ground for fertiliser) and to a "Roman Cement" mill built to the north of the granary. The 16hp beam engine was erected by Tuxfords of Boston at a cost of £300. The business failed in 1833 after a succession of poor harvests; the mill was sold and the partnership dissolved.

Isaac Reckitt went to Nottingham and set himself up as a corn factor once more, but with little success. Subsequently he moved to Hull and entered the starch business which proved a much more profitable concern, eventually becoming Reckitt & Sons of ‘Blue’ fame – now Reckitt & Colman Ltd.

The Ostler family took over the mill in 1914 and ran the business until 1948 when mechanical problems made the windmill itself unusable. Trade carried on for some years using electrically driven equipment but was gradually wound down, and the premises were sold in the late 1950s.

The survival of the mill owes much to Mr. Basil Reckitt, great-grandson of Isaac, the original builder, because in 1953 he was made aware of the mill’s plight and arranged for the two Reckitt Family Charitable Trusts to finance essential repairs. The work was carried out at a cost of £790 by Thompsons, millwrights of Alford.

By the time the present owners, the Waterfield family, arrived on the scene in June 1987, the condition of the mill had deteriorated considerably, but the aim was to put Maud Foster Mill back into working order - and to use it. Extensive repairs were undertaken, including the re-laying of all the floors and the installation of new trapdoors, grain bins, millstone cases, balcony doors and windows where needed. Three new sails had to be made, extensive repairs were required to the cap frame and roof, a new fantail was fitted and all the machinery overhauled. The work was completed in July 1988 and it was fitting that Mr Basil Reckitt was able to come along on 22nd July to perform the official re-opening ceremony.

In 1998, two new sails were fitted to replace the two oldest, dating from the 1970s. In 2009, after more than 20 years full-time work, the three sails made in 1987 were replaced. The mill celebrated its 200th birthday in 2019 and with a fresh lick of paint in 2021 that brings the story almost up to date, but windmills are rather like the Forth Bridge...



 

Thomas Reckitt

Thomas Reckitt

 

 

At work - 1935

At work - 1935

 

 

 

Sails on - 1988

Fitting new sails - 1988

 
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