Millennium Project
The Windmill Centre is named after an original Windmill which, according to Victoria County History, was pulled down in 1840. In 1881 two rows of cottages now stood on the land where previously (it is assumed) it stood - see 1881 map extract below. The site was called The Windmill. It figured on OS maps in 1902 & 1925. Don Walker, a long term Deddington resident, recalls they were very cold and no one complained when they were pulled down which he rememebers being at about the time The Paddocks were built soon after the end of WWII. A 1954 map of the land holdings of Christ Church College (associated with the brochure for the sale that year of their 'Deddington Estate) still shows a similarly depicted area although the cottages had gone and the new secondary school had been built in 1950. This could be because an old OS map was used. The present entrance to the Windmill Centre is roughly the site of the demolished Windmill cottages
Click on the image to see the full size map of North Deddington and click HERE to see the full size map of South Deddington. Both maps are large pdfs which can be zoomed and scrolled. These and other maps of the Parish can be found HERE
There were various discussions by various parties after the school closed as how the building could be utilised for community purposes. Deddington Society discussed it in 1972 - see Newsletter No 2 - and made approaches to the OCC. In 1978 the Adult Education Committee, with the agreement of the Parish Council, convened a meeting to carry the matter forward. The subsequent history of how the present Windmill Centre finally came to be developed is contained in a report prepared in 2020 for the Parish Council. Its author, Mary Robinson, was the PC's representative on the Financial Working Group that managed its creation. The full report (pdf) can be read by clicking on its front page below.
The Windmill Centre contact details, including a link to their own website, can be found HERE .