Morgan Lewis Mill, St. Michael, Barbados Pocket Guide

Morgan Lewis Windmill

Morgan Lewis Windmill is located in the scenic hills of St. Andrew in Barbados and commands a most commanding view of the phenomenal east coast. Built in 1727, this typical wind-driven mill once crushed sugarcane to  produce juice during the 18th and 19th centuries.  Morgan Lewis Windmill stopped its operation in 1947 and was subsequently handed over to the Barbados National Trust for preservation as a museum. Morgan Lewis Windmill is among the World Monuments Fund list of 100 Most Endangered Sites in the World.

 

A complete restoration at a cost of approximately $800,000.00 took place in 1999 which aided in the full operation of the windmill. Morgan Lewis Windmill is the only operational windmill in the world to this day and still very much intact.

 

Sign Just Outside Morgan Lewis Mill, Barbados Pocket GuideThe mill is no longer used to grind sugarcane  but throughout the February to June Crop Season, the it becomes powered by its sails and is in operation one Sunday of each month. This operation is a very historic time that sees both locals and tourist alike taking the opportunity to get a glimpse of a small piece of our heritage. During a tour of the mill, there is an opportunity to even taste freshly crushed cane juice that is produced during the Crop Season in Barbados.

 

On the inside of the mill there is a most captivating display of equipment used to produce sugar back in the day when the sugar industry was solely run by windpower generated mills. This serves to remind us and in some instances, exposes us to what life was like back then on the plantation. Quite unlike the current building structure that exists for us today in Barbados, the rubble walls of the Morgan Lewis Windmill comprise of boulders that are held securely together with a mixture of egg whites and coral dust as opposed to cement as back in those days there was no availability of cement.

 

The acres of land surrounding Morgan Lewis Windmill are currently used for dairy farming.

 

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