The windmill spun nearly 99,000 times in a year
A working Cambridgeshire flour mill has claimed the title of Britain’s busiest working windmill after spinning nearly 99,000 times in a year.
Wicken Windmill, near Soham, took part in an international competition known as the Windmill Whirl-off to claim the title of windiest windmill. the winner of the copmetition is the windmill which has completed the most revolutions in the space of a year.
Wicken landed in seventh place out of a possible 21 mills that took part in the Whirl-off, including mills from across Germany and the Netherlands. It was however have the most spins out of all the UK-based windmills, with a total of 98,847.
The winnder overall was De Roos in the Netherlands which completed 403,000 spins in a year. The second highest ranking windmill in the UK was Upminster in East London, finishing in 11th place with 50,239 rotations.
The mill was built in 1813 but closed in 1933, and later restored in 1987 by the Wicken Windmill Partnership.
David Pearce, Miller and Millwright said: “I was particularly surprised because I hadn’t caught on to how much the sails built up, and how it mounted up so rapidly.
“We have many loyal supporters who like to see the windmill, and they have been very pleased that we have turned in so many rotations and achieved something of a record.
“We nearly got to 100,000 and of course, that’s our target this year. We will make 100,000.”
So far, in the 2026 Whirl-offs competition, they are currently in third place with over 7000 rotations. The rotations are tracked using a telemetry system called SmartMolen, which counts the windmill’s rotations.
Mr Pearce explained how the mill produces flour, with 75 percent being sold at the windmill and the rest through outlets including Daily Bread in Northampton.
