In early 2010, I was sent a number of spectacular images taken by Alan Caston from the 1930s onwards, which were a result of his daughter Stella scanning a set of mostly negatives that she had come across. Recently whilst working through some more family albums, a good number more images have been found, and although these are prints rather than negatives which makes them harder to scan well, there are further set of impressive images that have surfaced here. As these are prints, some of them have been identified from Alan's writing on the back of the prints.
From leaflets found with the prints, it looks as if Alan was a member of the SPAB Windmills Section in 1936.
I have applied some cropping, and occasional straightening to these images, to present them here in their best possible arrangement.
house converted tower mill
All 4 sails, but no shutters.
All 4 sails with shutters.
All 4 common sails.
post mill - 2 common, 2 shuttered sails
Likely taken by Alan's father, circa 1908
tower mill, 4 shuttered sails, fantail
Likely taken by Alan's father, circa 1908
All 4 sails.
tower mill, no sails or fan, tower shows bands of render/surface finish
3 broken sails
First image also shows remaining roundhouse of Duncton Gate post mill.
4 sails, windowless tower
two sails
4 shutterless sails, broken fantail
4 shutterless sails
3 shutterless sails
4 shutterless sails
4 shutterless sails
Capless tower
4 sails with shutters
tower mill, 4 sails
4 sails with shutters
4 sails with shutters
4 sails without shutters
4 sails without shutters
4 sails with shutters. Likely taken by Alan's father, circa 1908 (date based on another dated photo in the same album printed on the same type of paper). Alan corresponded with Rex Wales, to identify the mill shown.
4 sails with shutters
4 sails with shutters
Illuminated mock mill
4 sails
4 sails - pictures are from a later era.
fragmentary sails
4 sails
4 sails
4 sails
4 shutterless sails with spider
The two young men shown were friends of Alan, since they show up in other (non-windmill) photos as well.
Identified as Rodmell Mill.
| Last updated 16/09/2025 |
Text and images © Mark Berry,
1997-2025 -
Photos © Alan Caston |