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Saturday 24th March 2012:
SMG Public Meeting "The Mills of Essex" at The Quaker Meeting House, 39 Fonnerau Road, Ipswich, IP1 3JH at 7.30pm.
A talk given by David Morgans, who has been Essex County Council's Mill Support Officer since June 2010.
Click here for a map of how to get To The Quaker Meeting House.
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| News - in photos |
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| Thelnetham windmill grinding corn for the first time in 10 years (Tuesday 29th November 2011) |
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| Great Thurlow smock mill - work completed (Sunday 27th November 2011) |
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| Pakenham windmill has recently been painted and tarred. It looks absolutely fantastic. |
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We are pleased to report that much-needed repairs to the smock mill at Great Thurlow near Haverhill are finally under way. Contractor John Younger removed the remains of the sails and stocks, together with the fantail, by crane on April 6th. Later in the month new scaffolding was erected, providing access for repairing and re-boarding the smock and cladding the cap roof in aluminium. The sails and fantail will not be replaced and the external parts of the sheers (heavily reinforced with metalwork) will be removed. SMG has provided detailed guidance on the aluminium cladding, and Chris Hullcoop will make a pattern for one of the 15 new roof ribs to overlap the top of the tower to form a petticoat (the existing felt cladding is sealed down onto the boarding). The work, funded by the Thurlow Estate who own the mill, is expected to be completed by September 2011.
The photos below were taken on Saturday 21st May 2011. All of the outer layer of weatherboards (applied in the 1962 restoration) have been removed, together with some of the inner boards. This has revealed more areas of damage to the frame, some of it from rodent runs. One of the inner weatherboards bears the inscription ‘Richard Hayward Augst th 15 1878’, proof that this layer of boarding is also not original. |
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National Mills Weekend
Bardwell windmill: Sunday 15th May - 10.30am to 4.30pm
Herringfleet windmill: Sunday 15th May - 1pm to 5pm
Pakenham watermill: Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th May - 1.30pm to 5pm
Stanton Post Mill:
Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th May - 12pm to 6pm |
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Bardwell on National Mills Day (Sunday 15th May 2011). The mill ground corn for the first time in 25 years today! Congratulations to the Wheeler Family. |
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| News - in photos |
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Progress at Great Thurlow. The remains of the sail frames, stocks and fanstage were removed on Wednesday 6th April 2011 ahead of some urgent repair work to the smock and cap. The windmill will not be restored with sails and fantail again. |
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| Public Events |
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| Prince Charles visits Pakenham Water Mill... it's official. Click here to find out more!!! |
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Suffolk Mills Group - Public Meeting
to be announced |
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New course at Flatford Mill...
Watermills and Windmills
in Essex and Suffolk
Friday 1 – Sunday 3rd April 2011
Led by Graham Robinson and
David Morgans
FSC Flatford Mill
East Bergholt
Suffolk
CO7 6UL
Tel: 0845 330 7368
enquiries.fm@field-studies-council.org
Overview of the course
The object of this course is to provide an understanding of the long history of watermills and windmills and their place in the East Anglian landscape. The course will trace the development of mills using wind and water power for driving agricultural and industrial machinery.
On Friday evening there will be a talk and slide presentation outlining the history and development of water and wind power and its use in corn milling and other processes.
On Saturday and Sunday they hope to visit working examples of both wind and watermills in Essex and Suffolk. The evening session will review the day’s findings and reflect on how what they have learned can apply to the former workings of Flatford Mill.
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The Suffolk Mills Archive
During the last 3 months Bob Paterson has been sourcing old photographs of Suffolk windmills and watermills from members of the Suffolk Mills Group and also from old photograph albums owned by the group. He has created a near comprehensive list of windmill and watermill sites - both occupied and unoccupied and where he has been able to find an old photograph, he has linked the mill listing to a photograph of that mill. For the list of windmills click here and for the watermills click here. Bob does welcome additions (especially photographs) and comments on accuracy. Please feel free to send feedback and comments to windmillbob at hotmail.com. |
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| News - in photos |
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July 2010: Chris Hullcoop has been busy at Friston post mill. The weatherproofing work started last year and is continuing, and that the whole buck roof and head gable has been repainted for the first time since 1977. Chris also intends to do some patching to the roundhouse roof which is leaking. |
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June 2010: "One Up From A Beach Hut..." - Thorpeness post mill is for sale - for the pricely sum of £150,000. Click here to read the article on 25th June 2010 in The Daily Telegraph. |
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Brome post mill in 1976 (photographed by Peter Dolman) and the site now (May 2009)
After months of suspecting that the roundhouse walls of Brome post mill in the north of the county have been cleared, I decided to visit the site on Saturday 30th May.
I drive past Brome on the A140 on a regular basis and I thought recently there had been something missing from the rather dilapidated site. The roundhouse had a conventional pitched roof until the early 1990s. Since then the whole site had become overgrown and fenced off from the neighbouring playfield and the adjacent house. The playfield is now part of the Airfield Industrial Estate and has now been turned into a mobile home site (Country Homes) and the fenced off area that the windmill once stood has been totally cleared of vegetation.
There was no sign that there had been a windmill there. The site is marked by a pile of rubble, loose tarmac and soil. A half-demolished building and a derelict building remain along with an iron storage unit.
The post mill was built in 1818. Four spring sails were fitted in 1840 and the windmill ran two pairs of millstones. It was demolished c1900 and I have never seen an old photo of the windmill when it was complete.
It is a shame to lose yet another windmill, albeit minor remains of a windmill.
Bob Paterson
Sunday 7th June 2009
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************** NEWS **************
A complete list of known windmill sites in Suffolk can be seen on Wikipedia by clicking here.
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Great Welnetham tower mill - March 2009 |
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Great Thurlow smock mill - April 2009 |
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Great Thurlow smock mill - April 2009 |
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Messrs Codd and Hullcoop |
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Your learned chairman Chris Hullcoop |
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Restorations
Stansfield Tower Mill
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remaining tower mill turret dating from1840, situated between Bury St Edmunds and Haverhill has been preserved with the addition of an aluminium roof and some repair works done to the rotten floor boards inside the mill.
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Stansfield Tower Mill 1910 |
Stansfield Tower Mill now |
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