Swannington Heritage Trust Museum

About the museum

Hough Mill is a brick tower windmill on the edge of Swannington village in north-west Leicestershire. It was first known as Thringstone Smock Mill and later renamed after it was recognised as a tower mill. Commercial milling stopped many years ago and the building decayed to a shell. On 23 August 1994 Swannington Heritage Trust bought it from the local district council, and after years of restoration it opened to visitors in March 2000.

Volunteers have since rebuilt much of the machinery. They made the windshaft, the brakewheel, the wallower and the sack hoist over several years, and moved the grain bins and flour dresser to match the real milling process. Visitors climb through the floors, following the grain from the top of the mill down to the meal floor. The second floor is being turned into a small museum floor with models of a tower mill and a post mill.

The Trust also looks after nearby sites from the area’s coal-mining and railway past, including the Gorse Field with its replica horse gin, the Califat Spinney with the remains of a coal mine and an eighteenth-century Newcomen boiler, and the Swannington Incline of the 1832 Leicester and Swannington Railway. A railway room at the mill tells that story, and the Trust’s accredited archive holds artefacts, documents and photographs of the village.

Highlights

• Five-floor tower windmill with restored milling machinery
• Museum floor with models of a tower mill and a post mill
• Hands-on displays: hand quern, sack scales and sack trolley
• Jerry Leakins Railway Room about the Leicester and Swannington Railway
• Gorse Field with replica horse gin and Califat coal mine remains

Permanent exhibitions

• Hough Mill – A five-floor tower windmill with restored machinery, two sets of French burr stones, and a museum floor with models of a tower mill and a post mill.
• Jerry Leakins Railway Room – A model of the top of the Swannington Incline, two model locomotives and information boards about the Leicester and Swannington Railway and local coal mining.
• Gorse Field and Califat Spinney – Outdoor trails past bell pits, a replica horse gin and the remains of the Califat coal mine, including an eighteenth-century Newcomen boiler.

Operated by

Swannington Heritage Trust

Admission & discounts

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Accessibility

• Partially wheelchair accessible
• Elevator: no information
• Accessible restroom: no information
• Accessible parking: no information
• Service dogs welcome: no information
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description: no information

The mill has five floors with about 40 steep steps and handrails on both sides. For visitors who cannot climb, a screen on the ground floor shows a slide show of mill photographs. The Gorse Field and the Califat Spinney have steep slopes and uneven grass paths. The kissing gate between the mill and the Gorse Field can be opened fully with a RADAR key.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Activity booklet, scavenger hunt or kids’ audio guide
• Hands-on stations

Visitors may touch nearly everything in the mill. Children can weigh themselves on the sack scales and try the sack trolley, and two children’s trails lead through the Gorse Field and the Califat Spinney. School activity days can be arranged.

Getting there & parking

From Peggs Green roundabout on the A512, drive south down St George’s Hill and take the second track on the right near the 30 mph sign. Visitors arriving by bus can ask the Trust to open the height barrier on the track.

Amenities & dining

A toilet block stands next to the mill. Guides can show visitors how to grind wheat into flour with a hand quern.

Events & venue rental

• Spaces for rent

Groups can arrange to hold their own events at the mill and its grounds, for example art clubs, club barbecues, car club meetings and kite flying.

Plan your visit