Details

The monument at Windmill Hill is located on the brow of a hill overlooking
Croxton Park and includes the mound of a post mill.
The mound is flat topped, measures 25m in diameter and is up to 2.5m in
height. Although there is no indication of a surrounding ditch, it is thought
that one exists as a below ground feature. The name of the hill indicates the
site of a post mill and the mound has been shown to be situated within
medieval ridge and furrow ploughing.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Post mills were the form of windmills in the medieval period in which the
wooden superstructure rotated about a central vertical post. The central post
was mounted on cross timbers which were stabilised by being set into a mound.
This mound might be newly built but earlier mounds were also frequently re-
used. The whole superstructure of such a mill was rotated to face into the
wind by pushing a horizontal pole projecting from the mill on the opposite
side from the sails. The end of this pole was supported by a wheel and
rotation eventually resulted in a shallow ditch surrounding the mill mound.
Post mills were in use from the 12th century onwards. No medieval examples of
the wooden superstructures survive today but the mounds, typically between 15m
and 25m in diameter, survive as field monuments. In general, only those mounds
which are components of larger sites or which are likely to preserve organic
remains will be considered worthy of protection through scheduling. However,
some mills reused earlier mounds, such as castle mottes and barrows, which are
worthy of protection in their own right.

The mound of the post mill at Croxton Kerrial survives well and is thought
likely to have utilised a well preserved Bronze Age burial mound.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Hartley, R F, The Medieval Earthworks of North-West Leicestershire, (1987), 8,26

Source: Historic England