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Mill news and topical information - Archive page 28


windmills Windmills of Somerset

Rod Morris writes articles on local interest matters for the monthly magazine Somerset Times. A forthcoming article will cover the Windmills of Somerset, and to illustrate it, Rod took photos of the county's remaining windmills. I'm very grateful to him for providing me with a copy of those photos for display on this site.
Mills: [Burnham Without] [Chapel Allerton] [Felton] [High Ham] [Portishead] [Uphill] [Walton] [Weare] [Worle] []
Item: #699, Posted: 16/7/08.

misc Bill Bryson speaks to the SPAB AGM

As President of the CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) Bill Bryson is more than appreciative of the built heritage of England, and as a Norfolk resident he's likely to see many windmills and windpumps in his regular routine, which made him a great choice to speak at this years SPAB AGM.

The photo shows him speaking, in a presentation that touched on why he loves England, what he wants to change about it (including the loss of front gardens, poor siting of power pylons, the loss of hedgerows, and so much litter), and a retelling of the classic joke about hiking in bear country.



Item: #698, Posted: 7/7/08.

misc A windmill made from straw bales

I don't have much to go on here, except a couple of photos on Flickr showing a superficially reasonably accurate windmill constructed (according to the caption) from straw bales. The tower is certainly fairly irregular and appears to be without openings, but is topped with a rounded cap holding sails and a fantail. These wooden items look to have been quite solidly constructed - so it's perhaps not as temporary a structure as straw bales might suggest.

The photos are simply labelled "Straw Bale Wind Mill 1" and "Straw Bale Wind Mill 2", with the only clues to the location being that it's in a photo stream called "Road Trip (Llandudno 2008)".

Update:[23/7/08]

As soon as I posted this item, it was suggested to me that this may be this year's straw construction by Snugburys ice cream farm in Hurleston, who have been creating such constructions for 10 years or more.

I have finally confirmed this, via Straw windmill is a cool idea.

Update:[15/10/08]Recent photos dated 12th October on Flickr show this in the process of being dismantled.

Update:[16/11/08] I've been told the structure is still standing - it looks as if the previous photos I thought showed it being dismantled were either mis-dated, or maybe show it being repaired.
Mills: []
Item: #697, Posted: 6/7/08.

windmills Chase Tower, Newhall, Harlow

The "landmark" Chase Tower at Newhall, Harlow is designed to resemble a very large scale post mill body. As such, I guess it deserves a place on my mock mills page, though it's avoided adding any sails to the structure which is actually an apartment block.

The building features on the cover of the Government's newly published Eco-towns Prospectus, where it is described thus:

The Chase Tower apartment block by Cala Domus, at Newhall, Harlow. Winner of CABE Building for Life Gold Award 2005. A distinctive landmark building in the 74-home development, the Chase Tower mimics a windmill to generate electricity for the communal parts of the building with photo voltaic panels.


Mills: []
Item: #696, Posted: 25/6/08.

windmills Windmill paintings by Noel Garner

Noel Garner has been painting and drawing windmills and pumps for the past twenty years - always on site - never from photographs. They are not for sale, but he has put together a website to give them wider exposure.

The mills featured include ones across the UK, in particular Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Somerset.


Item: #695, Posted: 7/6/08.

windmills Possible Murphy windmill progress

After having stalled for many years, it looks as if work on rebuilding the Murphy windmill in Golden Gate Park has restarted.

My only evidence for this is a photo on flickr which is not positively identified, but does look as if it could be the Murphy windmill base, now sporting a new stage. It's a slightly strange way to be going about rebuilding a windmill - I would have thought that getting the uprights in first would have been far better, and that having the stage in place would stop you getting the necessary access to the base to make the body easy to build.


Item: #694, Posted: 6/6/08.

windmills The most photographed windmills

As you look around my site, you will probably notice that as well as including plenty of photos of my own, I also have extensive links to photos that are provided by photo hosting sites, such as flickr, and Picasa Web Albums.

In some cases, particular windmills are such popular subjects that these sites have many hundreds of photos of the same windmill. As a case in point, probably the most popularly photographed windmill is the Dutch Windmill in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. (A number of factors contribute to its popularity - being at one end of Silicon Valley it's seen by a huge number of web and digital camera literate people - precisely the people who contribute to photo sharing sites, and the rarity of windmills in California, and the huge tourist draw of the area are additional factors.)

Another (mock) windmill with a huge tourist draw is the Moulin Rouge in Paris - who doesn't take a photo of this landmark when they visit Paris?

The incredible number of photos of these mills can be a problem - navigating and inspecting them is not easy. Another photo site, Panoramio, has just introduced a clever method of viewing multiple photos of the same subject, which they call "Look around". A few good examples of windmills using this method are:

I did find some UK mills that are available using this method, but they have much smaller datasets:

On a technical note, windmills are not ideal for this photo matching - the essence of a fully functional windmill is that it is a machine that moves, which can make for some incorrect matches. For example the pair of photos of Heckington mill have been matched so that the 8 sails are correlated - but the two images are taken when the cap had rotated to face different compass directions, so the bits of the tower being matched do not agree with each other. The Brill images also seem to turn the mill upside down to match the two images which were taken from different sides of the mill together, and the Blennerville pair seems to do something similar.

On the other hand, this pair of Melin Llynnon impressively (or luckily) manages to match the tower in the two images, despite the cap and sails facing in quite different directions:


Item: #693, Posted: 5/6/08.

misc Mills at Disney World

There are a number of mills to be found at Disney World in Florida - of course being Disney these are all mock mills - part of the general fantasy world of the theme parks. If you take a look in Google Earth at the new 3d building representations (simply turn on the 3D Buildings layer, and go Disney World) then you can get a good view of them.

Tom Sawyer's Island has both a windmill, and a watermill. The windmill is accurately modelled with just 3 sails at the moment, and the watermill called Harper's Mill has a few additional details such as a barrel and a raft outside.

There is also a mock windmill at the pool of the Stormaway Bay Disney Beach Club.

Perhaps surprisingly, there do not appear to be any mills included within Epcot, Disney's park that (amongst other things) showcases buildings from around the world.


Item: #692, Posted: 5/6/08.

watermills Daniels mill waterwheel turning once again

After the severe flooding in the area last year, the huge 40ft diameter waterwheel at Daniels Mill, Bridgenorth has been out of action. Following work by Adam Marriott, the wheel is once again turning, and work on the pentrough and stone nuts should soon result in all 3 pairs of stones being back working very soon.

Check out these videos of the the wheel turning and the stones in action.

Update:[5/6/08] The SPAB Annual report 2007 notes that "At Bridgenorth in Shropshire, the millpond of Daniels' Mill was filled, and the wheel damaged, by thousands of tons of ballast washed off the adjacent Severn Valley Railway".
Mills: []
Item: #691, Posted: 3/6/08.

windmills Colourful interior of Little Marton

Little Marton windmill was open over the National Mills Weekend, and Shirley Matthews of the Friends of Little Marton Windmill has sent me some photos of the colourful interior of the mill, where the remaining iron machinery is painted in bright primary colours.

The original memorial plaque on the inside of the mill is shown, of which there is a replica on the outside of mill. The red hawthorn is for Allan Clarke's little son Frank Allen who drowned in a clay pit aged 7.


Mills: [Little Marton]
Item: #690, Posted: 29/5/08.

windmills SPAB Mills Section plaque awarded to Jill mill

On Saturday 10th May 2008 (during National Mills Weekend) Jack and Jill Windmills Society was presented with a Conservation Award plaque by Jim Woodward-Nutt, chairman of the Mills Section of SPAB (Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings).

More details at the Jack and Jill Windmills Society website.
Mills: [Clayton]
Item: #689, Posted: 26/5/08.

windmills Millstones at Holgate mill

The runner stones of Holgate's three pairs of french burrs have just been lifted, to assess their potential for reuse. One pair will be wind driven, and a second pair by electricity. The third will be permanently lifted for display purposes. The fourth pair, which are Derbyshire Peak stone used to mill animal feed, will be left unseparated.

A number of short video clips showing various aspects of the work at Holgate windmill can be found at YouTube.

Mills: [Holgate Mill]
See also:Item #672, Item #663
Item: #688, Posted: 26/5/08.

windmills Smock framing at Ockley windmill

The reconstruction of Ockley windmill into a residential, but still largely traditionally built mill continues, with progress being reported at the Ockley windmill site.

Progress over the past year (since building regulation approval of the plans) has seen Now the side frames (which were made in the workshops of JHE Ltd in Burgess Hill) are on site, and being reassembled ready to be lifted into place.
Mills: [Ockley]
Item: #687, Posted: 26/5/08.

windmills Sails removed from Lowfield Heath mill

The sails have had to be removed from Lowfield Heath mill, after some rot was found and the millwright advised removing them for further inspection to be safe.
Mills: [Charlwood]
Item: #686, Posted: 26/5/08.

windmills Llancayo windmill progress

Peter Morgan has written to me to fill in the details about the conversion of Llancayo windmill. In particular he notes from my earlier item on this mill that the current roof is only temporary, to be replaced by a proper cap with working patent sails later this summer. The Jolly Roger flag relates to the original owner of the mill, who was a pirate (or privateer in more polite language), and the attached building is a rebuild of the original drying store.

Many more details are to be found at the windmill's website which documents the progress with many photos, and shows plans of how the finished build will look.
Mills: []
See also:Item #677
Item: #685, Posted: 26/5/08.

windmills Photos of Marton mill

Thanks to Daniel Stretton, I can show you some photos of the broken sail at Marton Mill, Lancashire.


Mills: [Little Marton]
See also:Item #683, Item #668
Item: #684, Posted: 8/5/08.

windmills Windmill sails

A couple of quick notes on windmill sails:
Mills: [Reigate] [Little Marton]
Item: #683, Posted: 22/4/08.

windmills WindmillLand - Promoting the works of Allen Clarke

Allen Clarke used the name Windmill Land for the Fylde and Wyre area, of whose windmills he wrote about in two books, titled "Windmill Land" and "More Windmill Land".

His granddaughter, Shirley Matthews, is chairman of the Friends of Little Marton Windmill, and has a website WindmillLand which aims to promote the works of Allen Clarke. The content is a bit sparce at present, and the navigation a bit of a lottery (the menus don't take you to the same place on each page), but it's an interesting site to look round.

Of note, because they are hard to navigate to, are
Mills: [Little Marton] [Staining]
Item: #682, Posted: 22/4/08.

mills Mills Open Weekend 2008

Mills Open Weekend this year is the 10th and 11th May 2008.

There is info at the SPAB Mills section site, and also at the dedicated www.nationalmillsweekend.co.uk site.
Item: #681, Posted: 20/4/08.

windmills Ideas for house converting Craggs mill, Preston

Craggs mill, Preston has long been empty of its machinery, having lost its sails around 1880, and according to a report in the Lancashire Evening Post has since served as a wartime cinema, a piano workshop, a garage, and a prison. An internal fire a few years ago damaged the interior still further.

The new owner is Jonathan Ruff who runs a computer firm called MemoryBits, and thought initially of making it the company HQ, but after financial considerations now plans to turn it into two apartments. A suggestion is to rerender the tower, and add a three storey glass extension - I hope that that is turned down since it would significantly alter the historic appearance of the tower, which currently shows as an impressive red rendered tower with three white bands.
Mills: [Preston, Dowbridge]
See also:Item #47
Item: #680, Posted: 20/4/08.

watermills Beard Mill, Oxfordshire

The Independent has an article on Beard watermill, Oxfordshire, entitled A river runs through it. I'm not sure if this is part of a deliberate series of articles linked with rivers, or simply that this title has been reused for a number of other articles in the Independent over time.

The article describes the work done by owners Philip and Victoria Basil in converting Beard watermill. The mill has a live water supply, (it straddles the river Windrush) and the part 16th, part 19th century buildings are described as retaining "mill pulleys" (whatever they may be!) The architects were Berman Guedes Stretton, who have more details on the project, which seems to show that it is now devoid of machinery.
Item: #679, Posted: 20/4/08.

windmills Encyclopedia entries on windmills

Encyclopedia Britannica has just made it easier for other web sites to link to their content, so that data that was once hidden away in their subscription only site can now be viewed freely.

Their coverage on windmills is largely comprised of two articles: The articles cover much of the same ground as each other, but the second one is generally slightly better - it carries the byline of Rex Wailes and Fred Landis. However, Encyclopedia Britannica makes a big point of its fact checked and consistently edited content - so it's worrying to see the errors in both that occur in just these example articles, which include: The leading online encyclopedia is of course Wikipedia, and in this case its article Windmill is now in very good shape. (By being open to anyone to edit, it is possible to correct and improve the article over time). It's particularly strong on the early history, providing accurate citations for the claims of Persian origin.

Wikipedia also has an increasing number of articles on individual windmills, many of which are linked together via the List of windmills page, and the Windmills category.
Item: #678, Posted: 20/4/08.

windmills Turning windmills into houses

Unfortunately the sad fate of many of the UK's remaining windmills is the spectre of house conversion. Two such examples showed up recently on Geograph, where the archive is able to offer before and after (or rather during) photos of the process.

Llancayo windmill in Wales was a derelict and roofless tower, which has now been rendered and turned into a spacious home. The roof of the tower is totally wrong (and I've no idea what the Jolly Roger is doing there), but the gallery around the mill looks fairly authentic, and given the state of the tower when this started, this may have been the best outcome for the building.

On the other hand, Frettenham tower mill in Norfolk, had been maintained in reasonable condition for years, being roofed (with an unauthentic cap it must be said) and still retains machinery. The conversion work here seems to be starting with the attached buildings, which are being converted into a number of dwellings - let's hope that that means that they will leave the mill largely alone, and in particular preserve all the remaining machinery it contains. However, the very fact that this is now incorporated into a private housing development means that even if preserved, these remains become inaccessible. A far from ideal outcome for this particular mill.


Mills: [Frettenham] []
Item: #677, Posted: 10/4/08.

windmills Pontoon construction at Hardley drainage mill

The drainage mill at Hardley Marshes is under restoration by the Hardley Windmill Trust. When restored, hopefully later on this year, the rare internal turbine will once again be able to pump water by wind. Access to the site will be from the river - and so a pontoon has been constructed for boats to moor up to. There is an album of photos showing the pontoon construction.
Mills: [Hardley Marshes]
Item: #676, Posted: 9/4/08.

windmills North Leverton mill to open on a regular basis again

Jonathan McGuinness informs me that North Leverton mill will be open every Saturday afternoon, from 12th April onwards. Admission is by a donation box towards the upkeep of the mill. Wind permitting, the sails should be turning and it is hoped that she will soon be grinding again.

Mills: [North Leverton]
Item: #675, Posted: 8/4/08.
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