Heckington Windmill is the only 8-sailed tower windmill still standing in the United Kingdom with its sails intact.
It was built in 1830 to plans by millwright Edward Ingeldew (who also built, among others, Wragby tower mill in 1831, Waltham Windmill in 1837, and the former Pickworth tower mill) for her first owner and founder Michael Hare of red brick, the outer walls being tarred (provided with a black bitumen paint in order to successfully keep moisture out), as a five-sailed windmill (very similar to Alford Windmill) with Sutton's single patent sails (15 feet tip-width and 12 feet heel-width) providing longitudinal shutters on both sides of the backs (36 feet in length). The mill has six storeys called "floors": ground floor, meal floor, stone (stage) floor, lower bin floor, upper bin floor (hoist floor), dust or cap floor