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Technical descriptions of English windmills

1: THE TECHNICAL INFORMATION PROJECT
2: THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF TRADITIONAL WINDMILL TECHNOLOGY IN ENGLAND
3: BEDFORDSHIRE
4: CAMBRIDGESHIRE A-F
5: CAMBRIDGESHIRE G-P
6: CAMBRIDGESHIRE Q-U
7: CAMBRIDGESHIRE V-Z
8: CAMBRIDGESHIRE - WEST WRATTING-YAXLEY
9: CHANNEL ISLANDS
10: CHESHIRE
11: DERBYSHIRE
12: DURHAM
13: ESSEX A-LITTLE BENTLEY
14: ESSEX BIRCH-F
15: ESSEX G-O
16: ESSEX P-TERLING
17: ESSEX M-HIGH ONGAR
18: ESSEX - ORSETT, BAKER STREET
19: ESSEX THAXTED-LITTLE TOTHAM
20: ESSEX - UPMINSTER-SAFFRON WALDEN
21: ESSEX - GREAT WALTHAM-Z
22: HAMPSHIRE AND ISLE OF WIGHT
23: HERTFORDSHIRE
24: KENT A-G
25: KENT H-O
26: KENT R-STODMARSH
27: KENT - SUTTON VALENCE-Z
28: LANCASHIRE
29: LEICESTERSHIRE
30: LINCOLNSHIRE A-FULLETBY
31: LINCOLNSHIRE FULNEY-K
32: LINCOLNSHIRE L-OASBY (HAYDOR)
33: LINCOLNSHIRE - OSBOURNBY-R
34: LINCOLNSHIRE - S
35: LINCOLNSHIRE T-Z
36: NORFOLK A-C
37: NORFOLK D-Z
38: NORTHUMBERLAND
39: NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
40: SHROPSHIRE
41: SOMERSET
42: SUFFOLK A-F
43: SUFFOLK G-Z
44: SUFFOLK W-Z
45: SURREY A-O
46: SURREY P-Z
47: WARWICKSHIRE A-N
48: WARWICKSHIRE O-Z
49: WILTSHIRE
50: YORKSHIRE

THE TECHNICAL INFORMATION PROJECT

These technical descriptions were compiled over a period of twenty-five years both from other writers’ research and my own investigations. The images are uploaded to the catalogue here.

The material is still gradually being added to. Unfortunately, there are some mills where the machinery (best seen with everything in its proper position) is currently dismantled or access is for one reason or another difficult to obtain. It has been decided to leave an inspection of these to some future date when hopefully it will have become possible. 

The information given in the descriptions is accurate to the best of my ability; nonetheless corrections will be welcome. It is possible some of the orientations given (north, south, east, west etc.) are wrong. I confess to having taken a few liberties and used some milling terms interchangeably, such as “nut”, “cog” and “pinion”, “wire machine/flour dresser/flour machine” or “truck wheel” and “centring wheel”.

Guy Blythman September 2019

KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS

Buckland             Stephen Buckland, molinologist

Dolman 1986      Peter Dolman, Lincolnshire Windmills, Lincolnshire County Council 1986

DS                       Denis Sanders

Flint                     Brian Flint, Suffolk Windmills, Boydell Press 1979

FWG                    Frank Gregory

HESS                   H E S Simmons Collection, Science Museum Library

HRH/HSRH/RH  H S R (Ronald) Hawksley

KSW                    Karl Wood paintings

LG                        London Gazette

MB                       Mark Barnard

McD                     R & R McDermott, The Standing Windmills of East Sussex, 1978

PD                        Paul Davies

PWSG                  Polegate Windmill Souvenir Guide, 2nd edition 1969, compiled by L Stevens

RW                       Rex Wailes

SA                        Sussex Advertiser

SF                        Stanley Freese

SMG                    Suffolk Mills Group

Stoyel                  Alan Stoyel, The Windmills Of Thomas Hennell, Landmark Publishing, undated

TIMS                   Transactions of the International Molinological Society

TJM                     T J Mason

TMS                    Quoted in HESS, identity unclear. Transactions of the International Molinological Society

W & WS              Wind and Watermill Section