Mill news and topical information - Archive page 25

Proposed design with wind engine rejected as Oklahoma state quarter

In the USA, since 1999 the US Mint has been issuing quarters (25c coins) with designs commemorating particular states. The last set of 5 quarters will be issued in 2008, and the designs have just been announced.

The finalists for the Oklahoma design included one with a windmill (wind engine) on it, described thus:

On the left-hand side of the coin is an old-fashioned windmill, balanced on the right by a gushing oil derrick. Taken together, these illustrations represent agriculture and oil and gas innovations, both of which greatly influenced development of Oklahoma. In the middle of the coin is an illustration of waving wheat along with a figure inspired by the Pioneer Woman, a Ponca City statue representing the courage, tenacity and ingenuity of the pioneers who endured hardships to realize their dreams.

(The Mint switched the sides of the windmill and oil derrick.when refining the design).

The design with the windmill was not chosen - instead a rather unexciting design with a bird and flowers was chosen instead - commentators have suggested that this was simply the "politically correct" choice: Edmond Sun, Tahlequah Daily Press.
Item: #624, Posted: 8/5/07.

Delay in work means Holgate will not open for Mills Weekend

A new stone flagged floor is being installed in Holgate windmill, but unfortunately delays in the installation means that the old floor has been removed, along with the steps up into the rest of the mill, but the new floor is not yet in place. This means that the mill will be unable to open as planned for National Mills Weekend.
Mills: [Holgate Mill]
Item: #623, Posted: 7/5/07.

Jill down to two sweeps as stock found to be rotten

Two of the sweeps at Jill windmill Clayton have been removed for normal maintenance and painting. Unfortunately as an extra task, it was found that the wooden stock fitted in 1970 is rotten, and will need replacing.

The Jack and Jill Windmill Society have a page with Information on this project.
Mills: [Clayton]
Item: #622, Posted: 7/5/07.

National Mills Weekend, 12th - 13th May 2007

Just a reminder, as if you needed one, that National Mills Weekend is coming up soon, on 12th - 13th May.

This year, the SPAB Mills section which coordinates the weekend, have put together extensive details of mills which are open on their National Mills Weekend page. As well as the contact details for the mills, and times of being open, many mills on the list have their postcodes included - so you can set your sat-nav up to work out a route taking in a number of them.

Go on, plan ahead, and have a great day.
See also:Item #598
Item: #621, Posted: 3/5/07.

Wayside Inn Grist Mill,Sudbury, Mass renovations

The Wayside Inn Grist Mill in Sudbury, Massachusetts inspired the watermill logo that appears on Pepperidge Farm products - a company with around $1 billion annual turnover. The bakery firm used the mill (which was only built in 1929 by Henry Ford) to produce its flour between 1952 and 1967, and adopted it as its logo about 1963.

The mill needs a bit of renovation, and Pepperidge Farm are contributing $15,000 towards installing a roof and painting the water wheel.
Item: #620, Posted: 1/5/07.

Stotfold Mill receives SPAB award

The restoration of Stotfold watermill in Bedfordshire after a huge fire in 1992 has been recognized by the SPAB, who have awarded a plaque to the mill - one of only 5 awards the society has made to watermills.
Item: #619, Posted: 1/5/07.

Hornsbury mill wheel turns once again

The waterwheel at Hornsbury Mill, now run as a hotel and restaurant, had been out of action for months after it became very noisy whilst turning. However, 4 days of attention from millwright Martin Watts have sorted out the problems, and the wheel is turning once again.
Item: #618, Posted: 1/5/07.

Liverpool Windmills

There has been an ongoing discussion about windmills in Liverpool, which was sparked by mention of the pumping windmill in Newsham Park, and which continued through reminiscences of this and other mills.

Gareth Hughes chimes in to provide a summary of Liverpool windmills thus:

There were a total of 74 windmills in Liverpool between 1250 and 1900, and remains of five still existed until after 1945 - Scott's or Wilson's Mill, Toxteth (demolished c1960 [disputed date]); Leicester’s Mill, Scotland Road / Bevington Bush (demolished 1960s); New Townsend Mill (demolished 1953); Wavertree (remains of foundations cleared away in 1986); Newsham Park.
Newsham Park mill was built in 1868-69 to maintain the water levels in the lakes. The builder was James Burroughs and Son of Liverpool (quote for the work £380), machinery by Owens and Co. of London (£138). It remained in use until the 1920s at least, and was demolished in 1954.

A number of contributors remember the Toxteth windmill as existing well into the 1960's - with one being able to place it as existing when he photographed it as part of a school project in the 1965-67 period.
Item: #617, Posted: 30/4/07.

Kentish mills pictures from Rob Cumming

My Kent mills pages are looking a lot more attractive now, thanks to a number of photos sent to me by Rob Cumming.

As well as the recent pictures of mills in their full glory, he also included two pictures of the skeleton windpump at Stodmarsh. The older picture, from 1986, shows the windpump in an advanced state of decay - the recent one, a distant view, shows that there is little left of the structure, and what there is seems to be leaning alarmingly.
Mills: [Wickambreux]
Item: #616, Posted: 30/4/07.

Progress report from Chinnor

Colin Grenville has passed me a progress report on the reconstruction of Chinnor windmill:

There is now an extensive group of photographs at the Mills Archive at Reading. This is currently the featured mill from the Mills Archive homepage, but a direct link is http://www.millsarchive.com/aspx/Featured.aspx
Ultimately, the mill is owned by the Parish Council but details do not yet appear on their website. Eventually we hope this will be updated to include details about the project: http://chinnorparishcouncil.org.uk/newsandevents.htm
We now have the driveshaft in position, and the great spur wheel roughly in place. The brake wheel is too far gone to sensibly repair so we're setting about making a new one. SPAB are visiting in a couple of weeks to impart some advice on how to proceed. A new staircase has been installed up to the first floor. Progress is slow as ever, but at least it's progress!

Mills: [Chinnor]
Item: #615, Posted: 23/4/07.

April 2007 edition of Mill News

The latest issue of Mill News from the SPAB Mill Section arrived today. Of note, it includes

Report from the Mill Section Spring Meeting (10th March 2007) on Smock Mills
Obituary of Bob Morse
Demise of Fressingfield windmill
Oatmeal milling at Montgarrie mill, Aberdeenshire
Gale damage to mills form January - (with minor damage at Billingford, and loss of fan blades at Thaxted to add to those I've previously reported here)
plus the regular letters, notes, news, mills for sale etc

The issue was also accompanied by the latest section publication - "The 'Engineers' of Mills in the Later Middle Ages" by John Langdon (being the printed version of the 8th Rex Wailes Memorial Lecture presented in February 2006).
Mills: [Thaxted]
See also:Item #609
Item: #614, Posted: 23/4/07.

News from some Norfolk mills sites

Nick Wiseman sends me some news from some Norfolk windmill sites he checked out earlier this month:

Briningham Post Mill
There does not appear to be anything of this mill left. There is a new-build flint cottage ("Mill Lodge") on the site. The cottage owner showed me a course of bricks which was used to help raise the level of her rear garden and said that these might be part of the "roundhouse". As there were only about 20 old bricks in all and these forming a right angle, it is doubtful whether it was part of this structure but may have been another of the mill outbuildings.
Little Snoring
I located the remains of this post mill in a copse on the Little Snoring - Great Snoring road, almost in to the latter village. Apart from what looks to be the ruin of a house or storage building, there are 4 plinths forming a square on which the trestles stood. There are the remains of a rotting sail spar with an iron sail clamp still attached. It took some finding!
Sedgeford
This has been converted for residential use and has buildings attached, it looks rather smart.
Great Walsingham
As Sedgeford, converted to residential use. This is now a holiday let.
Foxley
Was at one time converted for use as offices for a previous owner. Current owners have converted the upper part for water storage, the remainder is in use as general storage.
Fulmodeston
The structure is almost entirely covered in ivy now.
West Winch
Now devoid of cap and sails.

Update:[30/4/07] Nick has now sent me images to accompany most of these reports, which can be found on the individual mill pages.
Mills: [Briningham] [Little Snoring] [Sedgeford] [Great Walsingham] [Foxley] [Fulmodeston] [West Winch]
Item: #613, Posted: 23/4/07.

Willesborough windmill new sails

A new set of sails for Willesborough windmill were due to be lifted into place on Friday 13th April.
Mills: [Willesborough]
Item: #612, Posted: 23/4/07.

Photo of newly converted Bidborough windmill

Rob Cumming sent me a photo of the newly house converted Bidborough windmill. He reports:

"It is however a tasteful restoration, and the new cap does look good, as does the refacing of the tower. I don't know what has happened to the machinery on the second floor which consisted of a great spur wheel and stone nuts with engine drive."

The conversion received it's new cap in April 2006, and it was claimed to be a close copy of the original, but we can see from Rob's picture that this is not true. Whilst it has the general shape of a Kentish cap, it has been made symmetrical front and rear which was not the case of the working cap, and it is thinner than the original, having to bulge out around the tower.

Mills: [Bidborough]
See also:Item #545
Item: #611, Posted: 14/3/07.

Time Team dig at Dotton Mill, Devon airs

The Time Team dig at the site of the Dotton Mill in Devon aired on Sunday 11th March 2007.

Martin Watts, millwright and mill historian featured in the programme providing mill specific expertise. Although the site held a mill through to the 1960's, it was known that there was a Doomesday mill in the area, and the fact that the parish boundaries follow the mam made mill leat indicate that the mill site predates the drawing up of the parishes.

Much of the documentary history of the site had been researched in advance as part of an A-level history project, so there was no trouble in locating exacly where to dig to find the mill - with the wheelpit being the major feature of interest. A large hole appeared over the course of the weekend to uncover the pit - which yielded a couple of millstones, and wood and metal parts of the waterwheel itself. It also showed that the mill had been breastshot, rather than the undershot first supposed.

The mill leat was also excavated, which help establish its age, but a possible second mill site along the leat turned out to be unconnected with the leat. There were also finds from the domestic accomodation attached to the mill.

The Time Team format of a 3 day dig leading to a one hour TV programme shows the limits of this form of archaeology - I get the impression that there was much more to be learnt from the site given more time, and also that there were more details that were found, that simply did not fit the programme time slot - lets hope that this is written up in a more comprehensive form as well.
See also:Item #582
Item: #610, Posted: 14/3/07.

Follow up on gale damage

A number of followup items on gale damage after the storms in January:

Another casualty was Thurne Dyke mill, which lost its fantail
The emergency repairs to Upminster were done by millwright Vincent Pargeter, who as the former Essex county millwright knows the mill well
The tailwinded cap of St Olaves is now reported to have fallen off and thus sustained considerably more damage

Mills: [Fritton] [Thurne Dyke] [Upminster]
See also:Item #599, Item #593, Item #586, Item #581
Item: #609, Posted: 14/3/07.

A booklist by LustyLady

I don't know who LustyLady2 is, but all I do know is that she has put together a booklist of 46 windmill related books on Library Thing (all entered on 6th June 2006).

Windmills are not a popular subject matter on Library Thing, so there no great insight to be gained from the linkages Library Thing can draw between people with similar (or dissimilar) booklists. Manual analysis of the book titles, which cover mills in Britain, Holland, USA, Australia, and South Africa is not particularly telling either - but I'd plump for a US resident, just because there is a greater depth to the US mill literature than the UK coverage (for example there are no regional mill guides for the UK - just a good number of the classic reference books for the UK).
Item: #608, Posted: 13/3/07.

Mills of Southern Africa

There is a new book on South African mills by Chester O. Staples which has just been published. Called "Mills of Southern Africa" the book is the result of a number of years research travelling round South Africa discovering and recording that country's mills - driven by wind, water or horse. The book is available direct from the publishers Umdaus Press.

There is a linked website Mills of Southern Africa, which includes a couple of tours of the mills of the North West Province, South Africa, and the Free State, South Africa.

Item: #607, Posted: 27/2/07.

Ride's Mill, Sheeerness conversion

Over the past 16 years the owner of the smock mill base at Sheerness had looked at various ways of using the listed building structure, including consideration of whether it would be possible to rebuild it into a working mill in place, demolish it and rebuild it elsewhere, or simply to roof over the base. None of these wre considered practical solutions.

In consultation with the local planners, in early 2006 a planning application to rebuild the smock superstructure, and add an extension building alongside, paying homage to the ancilliary buildings that once accompanied the mill, was approved. The resulting building will provide three two bedrommed apartments. The structure will include a rebuilt gantry (though access will only be permitted to part of this, so as not to overlook the neighbours!), and the revised drawings do show dummy sails in place.

The superstructure which is currently being built is largely based on a steel structure.

Mills: [Sheerness]
Item: #606, Posted: 26/2/07.

Hot air balloon windmill

Via this creative commons licenced photo by Ben Harris-Roxas on flickr I've just become aware of this windmill shaped hot air balloon.

Since you can see the registration number PH-MAJ in the photo, via the Dutch Balloon Registry, I learn that it was constructed in 1990 by Thunder and Colt. There are a number of better photos of it there.

Item: #605, Posted: 18/2/07.

Information sought on Brownhill windmill, Birstall, Yorkshire

Shirley Brook has been been researching her (husband's) family tree, and provided me with the following information on Brownhill windmill, Birstall, Yorkshire:

Eli Brook was a cornmiller in 1841, living at Brownhill, Batley. On the 1851 census Eli and family appear in Beeston, Holbeck area of Leeds, also recorded as a cornmiller, though it's unclear where he milled.
My initial research would indicate that the Brownhill windmill (Windmill Lane, Brownhill, Birstall) was owned by the local landowner, which would have been the family Bat until the turn of the C late 1700's, when the family moved from Oakwell Hall, Batley. During the next 30-40 years the property changed hands several times, so I am trying to trace who owned it in 1841 which is when our GGG grandfather was the cornmiller.
After the mid 1800s Oakwell Hall has a chequred history ending up in the Local Authority hands in the early 1900's and is now a museum.
The windmill stump still stands and is on the land of the Brownhill Infants School, Upper Batley Lane.

Please let me know of any further info you may have on the mill or the families involved, and I can pass it on to Shirley.

Mills: [Batley]
Item: #604, Posted: 15/2/07.

WhatsThatPicture.com

WhatsThatPicture.com is a new photo sharing site with a twist - the pictures that it shows are ones that the poster needs help in identifying. It has yet to formally launch, but does have a number of pictures already. However, on the evidence of existing uploads, many of the images are simply too small to be properly identified.

A search for mill currently shows 3 images, all of windmills. Two images are really too poor to make for easy identification. The third image is tentatively identified as being Rayleigh windmill, Essex - which is easily confirmed, though I don't know for what period the tower had a crenellated top in order to date the image.

Update:[15/2/07] I've been reminded that Rayleigh windmill had cenellations through till 1974, when a new cap was put back on. The photo is obviously much older than that - but the other extreme of dating is 1906, when the mill stopped working by wind, and it appears the cap was removed soon afterwards.
Mills: [Rayleigh]
Item: #603, Posted: 13/2/07.

De Otter windmill, Amsterdam refused permission to move

The De Otter windmill in Amsterdam, a wind powered saw mill, has recently had its wind "stolen" by neighbouring blocks of flats which have been built it its way. The mill owners therefore arranged to move the mill out of Amsterdam, to an industrial heritage park in Uitgeest, 25 km North of Amsterdam, where it could continue as a working mill.

However, a decision by the Raad van State (Council of State), the country's highest administrative court, has decided that the mill must not be moved, pending a new investigation into the wind situation around the mill in its present location. Whilst it would certainly be preferable to preserve the historic mill in it's present location, a mill that is unused is likely to deteriorate rapidly - so moving the mill to where it can once again have free access to the wind it need to work seems the best solution. I sounds as if the very council which caused the apartment blocks to be erected, blocking the wind, is the one that is objecting to the plan to preserve the mill as a working mill by moving it.
Item: #602, Posted: 13/2/07.

Recent photos of Montefiore Windmill, Jerusalem

A recent article on the Montefiore Windmill, Jerusalem is nicely illustrated with some exterior shots of the mill. From the photos, one thing that struck me in particular is how poor the dummy sails currently on this mill are - they consist of entirely flat metal frames attached to the sail stocks.

I guess there are not many windmills in that part of the world to compare with, so whoever was commissioned to build these sails did so without reference to any real windmill sails.
Item: #601, Posted: 13/2/07.

Welsh Windmill receives grant for roof repairs

Amongst the announcement of over £300,000 to be shared amongst 12 of Wales's most important historic buildings, there's one windmill getting some cash:

Dale Windmill, Windmill Farm, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire
A prominent landmark structure and an important component of the maritime history of the peninsular, Dale Windmill is a very rare regional example of a circular windmill tower of a type scarcely used in Pembrokeshire. Grant of £4,000 offered to a local building preservation trust for the repair of the structure’s roof, external stonework and limewash.

Item: #600, Posted: 13/2/07.

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