bakers shop, Russell, New Zealand 🌍

Russell (#nz77)

Many of the reports of the well documented windmill in Russell, on Mill Island in the harbour, were written well after the mill was but a memory. One such report has mention of there being a second windmill in the town: New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18371, 11 April 1923, Page 2 (Supplement)

Other ventures in milling have left memories in the Bay of Islands. One was on Mill Island, near Kororareka, ... There was another windmill at Kororareka that brought its owner no fortune. It was erected above a baker's shop, and one day it went mad, as its brake was not behaving properly, and toppled through a neighbour's roof.

The same watercolour painting by John Tiffin Stewart that shows the Mill Island, Russell windmill, also shows a second smaller windmill in the town of Russell. Both mills are shown with sails, which would appear to show that the two mills in the town were in existence at the same time, around the early 1860's - but as with all paintings, it's difficult to say how much artistic licence applies.

[painting]