ALDBROUGH CORN MILL – Rare Regency Yorkshire Broadside Advertising the Sale by Auction of the Historic Aldbrough Windmill – Hull, 1818

[CUTHBERT, Robert.] In Robert Cuthbert’s Bankruptcy. To Be Sold by Auction. All That Post Wind Corn-Mill, with Patent Sails, Dwelling House, and Premises, Situate on Mill Hill, at Aldbrough, in the East Riding of the County of York. Hull: Printed by Robert Peck, Packet Office, 35 Scale Lane, [1 May 1818].

Large printed auction broadside with woodcut illustration of a windmill. Approximately 39 × 25.7 cm.

A rare and visually striking Yorkshire broadside advertising the sale by auction of the historic Aldbrough Corn Mill, one of the best-documented windmills of the Holderness district and a landmark of the East Riding landscape for more than a century.

Issued in connection with the bankruptcy of Robert Cuthbert, miller, dealer and chapman, the broadside announces the sale, to be held at the house of John Morris known by the sign of the Cross Keys Inn, Market Place, Hull, on Friday 8 May 1818. The property offered comprised:

“All that Post Wind Corn-Mill, with Patent Sails”

together with the adjoining dwelling house, outbuildings and approximately half a rood of land.

The mill is specifically described as standing upon Mill Hill, Aldbrough, preserving an early topographical reference associated with the village’s milling history. The present broadside appears to relate to the historic Aldbrough Corn Mill, a well-recorded Holderness windmill whose operational history extended from the eighteenth century until its dismantling in 1930. Historical photographs and records survive in museum collections, while deeds relating to the mill are preserved within East Riding archives.

Particularly noteworthy is the reference to Patent Sails, an important innovation in windmill technology. Patent sails employed adjustable shutters which enabled the miller to regulate the power of the sails without repeatedly stopping the machinery, increasing efficiency and improving safety. During the Regency period such features represented advanced milling technology and were sufficiently desirable to be prominently advertised in property sales.

The venue for the auction is itself of historical interest. The Cross Keys Inn in Hull was one of the town’s principal commercial inns, serving as a centre for auctions, bankruptcies, property transactions, coaching traffic and business meetings. Inns of this type played a vital role in the commercial life of provincial England before the arrival of the railway age.

The broadside also preserves the legal and commercial framework surrounding the sale. Particulars could be obtained from Anthony Johnson, solicitor of Beverley, while the sale arose directly from the bankruptcy proceedings against Robert Cuthbert. As such, the document records not merely the existence of the mill, but a specific moment in its ownership history, preserving details of technology, location, bankruptcy law and commercial practice in rural Yorkshire.

Surviving auction broadsides for identifiable British windmills are uncommon. The combination of a known Holderness mill, a named bankrupt owner, a prominent Hull auction venue, an early date, a woodcut illustration and detailed property particulars makes the present broadside an unusually evocative survival of Yorkshire agricultural and industrial history.

Condition: Good only. Folded as issued, with creasing, age-toning, edge wear, scattered staining and small marginal losses. Minor old repairs and handling wear. Complete and entirely legible.

A rare and highly attractive piece of Yorkshire milling history, documenting the sale of the Aldbrough Corn Mill during the Regency period.

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