Benjamin Turner was one of the first, and remains one of the greatest, British amateur photographers. He began practising photography in 1849 according to the technique patented in 1841 by the British inventor W. H. Fox Talbot (1800-1877). Turner's photographs were 'contact' printed from paper negatives (known as calotypes) of the same size as the print. He printed them on albumen paper, which is paper that has been floated on an emulsion of egg white containing light-sensitive silver salts. Between 1852 and 1854 Turner compiled 60 of his own photographs, including this one, in what is believed to be a unique album, 'Photographic Views from Nature'. It might have been a sample book, a convenient method for presenting photographs for personal pleasure, and for showing to colleagues or potential exhibitors. It remained in the Turner family until it was bought by the Museum.

The location of this windmill, on high ground a few miles south of the county town of Worcester, was notoriously windy and thus an ideal site for a mill. In the 19th century, windmills were being made redundant by the bigger, new steam-driven mills. Hence Turner was recording a rapidly disappearing feature of the English agricultural landscape. This mill was demolished 20 years after the photograph was taken.