Ashby in his time was very successful and the surrounding area became a little commercial centre where Acacia trees and Elders and Fig trees once grew with wild Hyacinth. Ashby's passion was botany, he was a member of the Royal Horticultural Society, he grew rare shrubs and plants.

The mill was surrounded by various outbuildings a mill house, mill cottage, bakery, granary, shop and various other out buildings where horse drawn carriages delivered the floor to places as far as Shropshire to titled ladies. Ashby in his time sold his stone ground flour to most of London's bakers.

When the windmill was built, Brixton Hill would have been relatively rural, surrounded by open fields, but during the 1850s, the area around the mill had become built up and the new houses sheltered the mill from the strong winds needed to drive it. The mill could no longer work efficiently and in 1862 Ashby and Sons transferred their milling business to watermills at Mitcham. The sails were removed two years later and the mill was used for storage.

In 1902, when the lease on the Mitcham mill expired, a steam engine was fitted to power Brixton Windmill.

Then around the industrial revolution a cast iron structure - called a Provender Mill - was fitted and is also historical to the mill. In it's heyday it was powered by steam, and later gas. This would provide an alternative if there's no wind, and as an educational resource to fully explain to process of milling, various grains. Explains how the milling technology progressed. This mill uses Burr stones which are excellent for milling various grains, including barley oats. Burr stones are a very quartz like material, so hard that it has to be cut into small blocks and bound with iron bands. Burr stone lasts much longer than the Darbishire grey stones on the floor above - the original mill.

Around 1920s the roller mills took over, mechanisation as factories produced flour on a vast scale. The last owner of the mill was Joshua Ashby he died at the age of seventy five, he would have been a great grandson of the original owner, right throughout the history of the Mill it has stayed with the Ashby family. What we know of Joshua is that he was a recluse, we also know that he wanted people to really love the mill, and be preserved Ashby moved to Mitcham in the Wandle valley. The mill was finally closed down in 1934.

On the death of Joshua Ashby the mill passed to a Miss Marshal his housekeeper.

Sometime after it ceased to be a working windmill a wooden gallery was built around the top. London Borough of Lambeth, Archives Department.