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Blowing the cobwebs off - Part 1

Combination of the crap weather and then lack of opportunities meant the bikes not been out for any really serious use yet this year, so today its a round trip around Lincolnshire visiting windmills that have the sails still on - i.e they still look like windmills!!! As you know I like to have a theme for a day out, got the idea when I was out and about the other day and passed two windmills with sails turning that were reasonably local to each other - at Tuxford and North Leverton. After a bit of research, I've found the only 10 windmills in Lincolnshire that meet the criteria, all but one in working order and most have cafes or tea shops attached. As luck would have it, they form a nice circular route starting and finishing in Lincoln. Its going to be arounsd 175 miles, but teh suns shining and its a cracking day for a ride out.

• Hewitts Mill Heapham

• Mount Pleasant Mill Kirton Lindsey

• Wrawby Mill near Brigg

• Waltham Mill near Cleethorpes

• Hoyles Mill Alford

• Dobsons Mill Burgh le Marsh

• Sibsey Trader Sibsey

• Maud Foster Windmill Boston

• Pocklingtons Windmill, Heckington




• Ellis Mill Lincoln

First on the list is Hewitts Mill at Heapham near Gainsborough. However, no sails on it!! From the pics found on the internet there were sails in place in 2008 so they must have been taken down recently. Its situated on a farm and looks like its private. No cafe or visitors facilities, and it's really out in the sticks.

Only a couple of miles away is the next mill - Mount Pleasant at Kirton in Lindsey. I pass this most days on my way to work but never stopped and had a look. It does have a tea room but it's not open today.Like most of these mills they're not open everyday

A short hop over to Brigg to get to Wrawby Mill. Apparently this is a post mill rather than a tower mill like the previous two! No facilities but it is situated in a small paddock and you can walk around and up to it. Opening days in June & July only according to the info board but keys available if you knock on the house next to it.

Next up its Waltham Mill. A well established attraction it has an adjacent park, cafe, miniature railway - but all shut today as its out of season!!

Four down and six more to go. However on the way from Wrawby to Waltham I stop to check out this. It seems the secret location of International Rescue has been blown (previously thought to be Tracey Island somewhere in the Pacific) and due to the recession, Thunderbird 3 is now providing a scheduled service from Humberside airport. I wonder when the next flight is?

Blowing the cobwebs off - Part 2

Still not had a cuppa yet so hopefully Hoyles Mill in Alford will have its Tea Shop open - if not then its into Alford itself. As it happens, cafe at the mill not open yet as its out of season!!! Suitably refreshed i'm of to Burgh le Marsh, the windmill is next to a restaurant (which was clsoed) on the old road to Skeggy, but not really inpsiring, so off now to the Sibsey Trader near Boston. Can't get anywhere near the Sibsey Trader today as , you've guessed it, its not open to visitors today and only on a Saturday during the winter. I'll just have to pay a visit at the weekend later. The next on the list is Maud Foster nearby in Boston itself - and I mean in Boston - right in the middle of Boston. By coincidence, me & the missus went for a coffee & cake at Doddington Hall farmshop the next day which is about a mile from where I live. Sign in the shop said all cakes made using organic flour from Maud Foster Windmill!!! Up to now, the roads have been reasonably quite and pleasurable to ride along, but Boston town centre is nowadays always gridlocked, today is no exception and the remainder of the ride along the A17 to Heckington is boring. So not in a good frame of mind when I get to Heckington Windmill which is only open on a Sunday at the moment Quick pic and I'm off to the last windmill on the route which is Ellis Mill in Lincoln.

I've lived in Lincoln for nearly 16 years, and never been to this place. Seen it from afar and go past the end of the road its on regularily, but never been to see it up close. Its on a street imaginatively called Mill Road, which is rows of terraced houses. There is a gap in the row where four houses should be, and thats where the mill appears - quite a strange thing to find amongst rows of brick terraced houses. Check it out on google streetview

So thats the last and its only 10 minutes to get home. I've been out for about 5 hours, done just under 180 miles and seen a bit more of Lincolnshires heritage on a nice sunny day in March

Used to do breathing apparatus training exercises in the cellars of the
old prison in Lincoln Castle