Rose Bank Windmills

The Rose Bank Windmills were a pair of windmills that stood on the far eastern end of Rose Bank, off of Rose Valley. These were post mills, the earliest form of windmill that had been common in Europe since medieval times.

An extremely interesting painting showing a military camp on Warley Hill (the main image for this page) shows one of a pair of windmills that stood on the site of Rose Bank in the late 18th century. Looking across into the distance, you can see the valley where the railway would later be built, and the hill that is now completely built on as Warley Hill.

It isn't clear when a mill was first built here - there were certainly 16th century mills in Shenfield and South Weald. In 1589 there was a miller called Henry Pond living in Brentwood - this is the earliest suggestion that there was a mill in the town.

The Andre and Chapman map of 1777 shows both mills standing at the western end of Rose Bank. The ordinance survey map of 1871 shows that by then one of the mills had been pulled down - with a newer windmill built on the other side of Shenfield Common. The one remaining mill had been pulled down by 1895 and its site is now a small wooded area at the far end of Rose Bank.