Brixton Windmill and education centre

A new learning centre is set to be built adjacent to Brixton Windmill in the London Borough of Lambeth this summer.

The windmill, which is sometimes referred to as Ashby’s Mill, already offers schools various workshops, but the new education centre will enable more schools to visit and have better resources.

Work on the new centre is expected to start this May and be completed late summer, in time for the start of the next school year.

The new centre

The education centre will provide workshops for schools and will support the existing workshops and programmes that the windmill runs.

The facility will support the expansion of milling activities and social enterprise which sells Brixton Windmill flour to local retailers, as well as running baking workshops.

In 2016 the windmill celebrated its 200th anniversary. The education centre aims to offer pupils the opportunity to immerse themselves in the history of the grade II listed windmill, whilst gaining a further interest in agricultural history.

Current workshops at Brixton Windmill

Suitable for Key Stage 2 pupils, the Might Mills workshop focuses on the running of mills as well as the history and the people who work behind them. It also looks at the engineering and construction of windmills. 

Pupils taking part in this workshop will get a tour of the windmill and will get to make their own model of a windmill in groups.

The Robbed of Wind workshop is also suitable for Key Stage 2 pupils and looks at the history of the Ashby family, the millers at Brixton in 1861 who believed they were being robbed of the wind. 

Pupils taking part will learn about their story, as well as how windmills shaped the agricultural past of Lambeth. This workshop also gets the pupils involved in role playing activities.

More about Brixton Windmill

The grade II listed brick mill was built in 1816. It is the last remaining tower mill in central London and one of four in greater London. 

The new centre has been granted by Lambeth Council and Friends of Windmill Gardens (FoWG), the charity that restored the windmill which is grade II* listed.

For more information, visit brixtonwindmill.org.