LINCOLNSHIRE T-Z
TETNEY
Post mill, gone
This was a white mill with a flat breast and a skirt over the top of the roundhouse. A timber whose purpose is unclear extended from the buck roof at the back. There were four single-shuttered patent sails with canvas shutters.(1)
(1) HESS
Black’s Mill
Post mill, gone
This was a tarred open-trestle mill with two common and two shuttered sails mounted on a wooden windshaft with a wood brakewheel and an iron tailwheel. Two pairs of stones, arranged head-and-tail, were driven.(1)
(1) HESS
THEDDLETHORPE ALL SAINTS (Theddlethorpe St Helens, gone, TF472873)
Tower mill
The red brick tower was tarred and had been heightened from three storeys to four. There was little floor space inside. Only four centring wheels, two on either side, were provided. The sails were patents with canvas shutters and were fitted to the cross by the pan method. The windshaft was iron and square, tapering towards the tail. The wooden brakewheel was 7ft in diameter; the four heavy clasp arms were bolted to the face of the wheel and extended to its outer extremity, being nicely finished off with a curve at the end. It is likely two pairs of stones were installed.(1)
(1) HESS
NORTH THORESBY
Post mill, gone
There were four single-sided patent sails with roller-blind shutters, and a roundhouse.(1)
(1) HESS
Black’s Mill
Post mill, gone
Simmons believed this mill also had roller-blind shutters(1).
(1) HESS
TOYNTON ALL SAINTS
Tower mill
Standing today, tower only
TF392640
This was a small tarred mill with the cap (winded by hand until 1905(1)) raised on shallow blocks of wood and a dead curb. The bin and dust floors were combined. Four single-shuttered patent sails, with the springs enclosed in boxes attached to the whips, were fitted. The windshaft, which had a poll end, was round and tapering from 9” to 6”, with a large square boss for the brakewheel mounting. The wheel was a 7ft diameter wooden clasp-arm with a wood brake. The wallower was also wooden (though Wailes states it was in two halves rather than solid, implying it was iron) but with iron teeth in segments. The usual friction ring bore on an 18” wood drum on the iron-straked wooden sack hoist bollard which was mounted in the wall. The upright shaft was wood and 33” square. The 6ft 6” all-iron great spur wheel had teeth cast on separately. The stone nuts were iron mortice.(2) There appear to have been two pairs of stones; the shoes had traps in them worked from below(3). A belt drum on the upright shaft beneath the great spur wheel drove the governors on the floor below. A third nut and quant drove a dresser on the ground floor via a 2ft wooden spur and bevel gear.(4) There was a secondary cog ring on top of the great spur wheel for the engine drive(5), which had the usual external pulley. Originally a portable engine was used, a section of the teeth of the brakewheel being removed to disconnect the wind drive, but it was later replaced by an oil engine.
(1) RW in HESS
(2) HESS
(3) HRH in HESS
(4) HESS
(5) RW 1953, photographic evidence
TRUSTHORPE
Tower mill, stump remains
TF513840
This fine tall (75ft) mill(1) was built as late as 1880 using red bricks from a nearby field(2). It had seven (Wailes says eight) floors with a gallery under the third. The internal diameter of the tower at the base was 24 feet. The machinery had been removed from a mill on the Beverley Road, Hull, and re-erected here. J E Thompson put two new crosses on in 1901 and 1906(3). The sails, at least two of which were double-sided patents, had at one time been shortened. The iron windshaft had a counterweight at the tail. The striking gear was rack and pinion, but with a rocking lever. The brakewheel had a wooden rim with iron spokes and boss and iron segment teeth.(4) Four pairs of stones were driven plus a dresser and a separator(5) and there was engine drive, the external pulley being mounted above the first floor(6).
(1) J E Thompson December 1940, in HESS
(2) RW 1953
(3) J E Thompson December 1940, in HESS
(4) RW in HESS
(5) Ibid
(6) HESS
ULCEBY, Westfield Mill
Tower mill
This mill had an iron cap(1).
(1) HESS
WADDINGTON, Timm’s Mill
Post mill, gone
This mill had four common sails(1).
(1) HESS
WADDINGTON, Worsdell’s Mill
Tower mill
Standing today, tower only
SK974634
This was a tarred mill with a prominent ball finial to the cap. It had four sails and four floors.(1)
(1) HESS
WAINFLEET ST MARY, Key’s Toft
Tower mill
Standing today (tower only, house-converted)
TF490582
The brick tower had four storeys and the cap was winded by a prominent eight-bladed fantail. The drive from fan to curb was in four stages and the vertical shaft had a joint in it. The rack was outside the curb. Four single-shuttered patent sails were fitted and the striking gear was pull-rod with the shutters opening backwards; a block of wood could be placed by hand at the tail of the windshaft to prevent the rod moving back. The brakewheel was wooden with an iron cog ring; the wallower, brake, sack hoist and great spur wheel iron. The upright shaft was iron and wood. There were three pairs of stone, two peaks and one burr. One pair had a shoe controlled from the spout floor. The burr stones and a wooden bridgetree and brayer; one of the peaks had a single wooden lever for tentering, and the other an iron bridgetree and brayer.(1)
(1) HRH in HESS
WAINFLEET ALL SAINTS, Salem Bridge
Tower mill
Standing today, tower only, now forming part of brewery
TF495586
The mill had six floors and a gallery, and there were five single-sided patent sails. At one time a pair of 4ft 4” barley stones were driven.(1)
(1) HESS
WAINFLEET ALL SAINTS, Croft
Tower mill, stump remains
TF501596
The tarred tower had been heightened from four floors to six, the added section being cylindrical and giving the mill a distinctive profile, though the dust floor was very shallow, the sack hoist being on the one below(1). The wooden curb had wrought-iron facing spiked on and was mounted on a hexagonal wooden frame on top of the brickwork. There were four single-shuttered patent sails.(2) The striking gear was pull-rod. The brakewheel was of wood with iron teeth, the wallower (with wooden friction ring driving the sack hoist) and upright shaft of iron. The great spur wheel was wooden and the stone nuts iron. The single governor was belt-driven from the upright shaft above the great spur wheel.(3)
(1) HRH in HESS
(2) RW 1950, 1953
(3) HRH in HESS
WALTHAM
Post mill, gone
This mill had a wooden roundhouse with a steeply-sloping roof. There were two common and two single-shuttered patent sails.(1)
(1) HESS
Tower mill, standing today
TA259033
Built as late as 1878-80, and the last of a succession of mills on the site including a post mill of which photographs survive, Waltham mill operated by wind until 1962 and then for a brief period by electricity. The Waltham Windmill Preservation Society was formed in 1966 and has since restored the mill to a working condition.
The mill was built by Saundersons of Louth, but lacks their distinctive wrought-iron gallery. The tall tarred brick tower has seven floors, the first as often in Lincolnshire being higher than the others, and there is the usual regional ogee cap, here turning on a dead curb, and prominent fan cradle. Power is provided by six single-shuttered (double-shuttered until the 1920s) patent sails, struck by rocking lever. The cap frame consists of breast beam, sheers, sprattle beam, tail beam and rear lateral beam, with a short member on each side just aft of the sprattle beam. The rear lateral beam, which is of iron, is connected to the tail beam by two short timbers. The truck wheels are of iron with six spokes; there is one on each side timber, one on each sheer towards the front (before the breast beam) and at the rear where the tailbeam meets it, one on the rear lateral beam at mid-point and presumably one on the breast beam although this was not seen. A square iron windshaft carries an iron brakewheel in two halves bolted together and operated on by an iron brake. Behind the wheel the shaft tapers towards its tail.
The windows in the mill are all cast-iron, its builders having had their own foundry.
DUST FLOOR
This is very low, with no windows. An 8-armed iron wallower friction drives the sack hoist on the northwest side, which is similar to that at Sibsey. The friction rim on the underside of the wallower, which here is of iron rather than wood, bears on a large iron pulley with eight arms, ribbed on their side faces, on a square iron spindle carrying at its other end a solid bifurcated iron chain pulley (as at Burgh-le-Marsh). The hoist rests in a wooden support frame but two large iron levers, one with a counterweight, at right angles to each other and forming a single unit are used to raise or lower the timber carrying the bearing of its spindle, to which the counterweight is connected by a chain, and so put it in and out of gear.
FLOOR BELOW DUST FLOOR
There are windows to the east and west, and the ladder to the dust floor is on the northwest. Four vertical iron rods anchor the curb to the tower, vertical channels being cut for them in the inward corbelling of the brickwork near the top between the main ceiling beams. They rest on wooden ledges let into the brickwork at different heights. The main ceiling beams run east-west; they have cheek pieces, reinforced with iron straps, supporting them at their ends.
Corbelling of the upper four courses of brickwork is a feature seen on all floors.
FOURTH FLOOR
There are windows on the north and west sides, plus a third on the east which has been bricked up, and ladders to the floor above on the northwest and northeast (a second ladder was installed on each floor during restoration). The stairwell is on the south side. The main ceiling beams run east-west, with cheek pieces at their ends as on the floor above (and those below), and at mid-point a lateral beam is carried between subsidiary members fixed to their undersides; to this is bolted a steady bearing for the iron upright shaft, with a large dog clutch in the shaft above it. On the south side the lateral beam is reinforced by metal straps to the main ceiling timber.
THIRD FLOOR
There is a single window to the west. The ladders to the fourth floor are on the northwest and southeast and the stairwell on the east. The sack trap is raised as is often the case in Lincolnshire; beside it is the opening of a chute feeding the southwest stones. The main ceiling beams run east-west and between them on the east side, between the upright shaft and the stairwell, is mounted a lateral timber which exhibits two small circular holes within a rebated section, indicating perhaps the former presence of layshafting, part of some now bygone piece of machinery. The upright shaft is enclosed in a wooden box where it passes through the floor.
STONE FLOOR
There are windows at all four main compass points. The ladders are on the east and north sides and the stairwell on the southeast. The main ceiling beams run east-west and between them on the west side is a “chimney” formed by the raised sack trap on the floor above.
There is another coupling in the upright shaft above the great spur wheel. The shaft terminates in the floor within a wedge-shaped wooden shoe which encloses its lower bearing and the drive to the governor spindles. The great spur wheel is all-iron with eight ribbed arms. There are four pairs of stones the northwest and southwest of which are overdriven by wind while the northeast and southeast are underdriven by engine via a single solid iron mortice nut. The main ceiling beams run east-west and the upper bearings of the quants are bolted to the side faces of lateral timbers off (and between, for the nut of the engine stones) them. The engine stone nut has a jack ring for taking it in/out of gear with the spur wheel. The nuts for the wind stones are of iron mortice type with four arms each, and the quants are ribbed to act as damsels.
All the stones are in circular wooden tuns. Two of the supports for the horse of the northwest pair are of iron and curved; the horse is itself all-iron as is that of the northeast stones. The southwest stones carry the nameplate of Thomas Stapelton, who appears to have installed the stones at Burgh-le-Marsh (Dobson’s Mill), with the date 1857, which means that they predate the mill and may have come from one of its predecessors on the site, probably the post mill (whose immediate successor, before the present structure, was a tower mill built of clunch which collapsed while it was being erected). The northwest stones, manufactured by George Maris of Hull in 1847, likewise. In addition to the circular nameplate around the eye, the latter have four balancing weights at compass points, made by Clarke and Dunham in 1859.
SPOUT FLOOR
There are windows on the northwest and east sides. The ladders are on the northwest and southeast sides and the stairwell on the northeast. There are three main longitudinal beams in the ceiling, running north-south, which act as support for the tentering gear etc., with a number of lateral spars giving additional rigidity and stability to the whole structure and iron columns, ascending from the ground floor, supporting the middle timber at a third and two-thirds of the way along it. Between the middle and eastern beam are mounted the bridgetrees for the wind-driven stones and two curved iron brackets supporting a lateral iron member which acts as footing for the lower bearing of the governor spindle. Between the middle and northern timbers are the bridgetrees for the engine-driven stones. On this side the quant (really a secondary upright shaft) for the latter, which passes down to the ground floor, carries a six-armed all-iron secondary great spur wheel meshing with large iron gears on the spindle extensions of the stones. The mechanism could also be driven by wind if desired. The southern of the two gears appears to be all-iron and the northern iron mortice, with the teeth missing. On the “quant” above the secondary great spur is a coupling, and below it a large flanged iron belt drum with four curved spokes; it was not clear what this drove. The steelyard from the governor runs west-east to a link from which two further steelyards one on each side, parallel to the middle main ceiling beam, go to the eastern ends of the bridgetrees for the wind stones, where hand adjustment is provided. There is a second governor on the far east side of the floor for the engine stones, mounted on a lateral timber between the wall and the northern main ceiling beam with its upper bearing turning in a casting bolted to the side face of a timber fixed across some joists. It is fitted with a four-armed iron belt pulley; as with the other governor the drive came from the upright shaft(1) though I could see no evidence of this. Its steelyard runs a short distance east-west to the link from where the two further steelyards run diagonally to the western ends of the bridgetrees where again hand screws are provided. All bridgetrees are iron and of the dogleg type.
GROUND FLOOR
The entrance door is on the south side. The position of the windows and ladders was not noted. The main ceiling beams run north-south and between them, bolted to additional timbers on their undersides, is the curved iron bracket supporting the secondary upright shaft. The latter carries just above its foot a large bevelled six-armed iron mortice gearwheel meshing with an all-iron bevelled gearwheel on the engine drive layshaft. Above the first gearwheel on the secondary upright shaft, and on the layshaft before it enters the wall, are two pulleys whose purpose was not clear. The external pulley is doubled with the inner pulley having 12 spokes and the outer six. On the northwest side suspended on hangers from the ceiling is a short longitudinal timber supporting a vertical spindle carrying a small four-armed flanged belt drum. One of the “redundant” items could possibly have driven the oat crusher found on this floor; it is by Morrison, McGregor & Co. Ltd. There was formerly a dresser here as well(2).
(1) RW 1953
(2) Ibid
Rex Wailes (1953) recorded the following measurements:
Internal diameter of tower: 22ft 6in base, 11ft curb
Brakewheel 7ft diameter; 96 teeth cast in segments
Windshaft 8in square at brakewheel and a half inches square, with chamfered corners, at tail
Wallower 44 teeth
Great spur wheel 108 teeth
Wailes considered the mill to be similar in all respects to one at Binbrook, which has now disappeared.
Based on survey carried out by Guy Blythman 4th September 2011
WELLINGORE
Tower mill
Standing today, tower only
SK984570
The brick tower had six floors, with a gallery, and was plastered externally at the base. There were six double-shuttered patent sails.(1)
(1) HESS
WESTON
Post mill, gone
This mill is described by Mr Cobbin, who pulled it down c1921, as being of early seventeenth-century type(1). The body was tarred, with the weatherboarding on the breast laid in herringbone fashion, and there was a skirt over the top of the roundhouse. There were two shuttered and two common sails, and one pair were single-sided.(2) Two pairs of stones, one French and one burr, were driven. The headstones were 4ft 4”, the tailstones 4ft 8”. In 1946 the gate to a park at the approach to Pinchbeck, near the church, was made from the sheers and upright shaft.(3)
(1) Mr H Cobbin in HESS, August 1946
(2) HESS
(3) Cobbin in HESS
WHAPLODE, Whaplode Mill
Tower mill
The sails of this mill turned clockwise(1).
(1) HESS
WHAPLODE, Shepeau Stow
Tower mill, standing today
TF308123
This mill had four single-sided clockwise patent sails with canvas shutters, and the ogee cap was winded by an eight-bladed fantail(1). The four-storey tower was tarred and there were two external pulleys for the engine drive(2).
(1) HESS
(2) HRH in HESS
WILLINGHAM
Tower mill
This mill originally had six sails, but they were replaced with four clockwise single-shuttered ones after the cross broke(1).
(1) HESS
SOUTH WILLINGHAM
Tower mill, gone
TF182824
One account says that the tower was of white brick, another that it was tarred. There were four double-shuttered patent sails with braces.(1)
(1) HESS
SOUTH WITHAM
Tower mill, gone
SK924192
This mill had an iron tablet under the top floor with the inscription “CTM 1793”. There were four double-shuttered sails driving three pairs of stones, and an engine.(1)
(1) TMS in HESS, February 1941
WRAGBY
Tower mill
Standing today, tower only
TF131778
There were six double-shuttered patent sails and a gallery(1).
(1) HESS
WRANGLE, Toft Mill
Tower mill, standing today, tower only
TF443516
There were four sails. Latterly an oil engine drove a pair of stones on the ground floor.(1)
(1) J E Thompson December 1940, in HESS
WRAWBY
Rebuilt post mill, standing today
TA026087
This was a typical East Midlands/Lincolnshire post mill, with the buck turning on rollers on a curb on top of the battered roundhouse. The buck was tarred during the mill’s working life but in the reconstruction has been painted white. It was 9” wide by 12ft 3” long, minus a later extension of 3ft 3”. The centre post was the largest recorded in Lincolnshire, 21” square at the base and 24” diameter at the top. Both crosstrees and quarterbars have been spliced; the former are 14” square – unusually stout – and the latter 12”. The crowntree was 20” wide by 14” deep and the spout floor 7ft 4” high. The 18ft diameter, 12ft high roundhouse was of tarred brick with a felt-covered boarded roof. The curb is protected by the usual petticoat depending from the buck. There were six rollers which also acted as centring wheels steadying the buck, an unusual feature in a post mill.
The sails are single-sided. The last working set were patents, replacing commons, and came from a five-sailed mill at Kexby (elsewhere Rex Wailes says Laceby). They were later converted to springs, with the shutters hinged at the bottom end and not at the top as is usual practice, and controlled by coil springs with slotted tensioning straps for adjustment, in an arrangement referred to by the miller as the “lock-up”. The width of the driving side of each sail was 6ft. The wooden windshaft with iron poll end has an 8” diameter neck journal and is seventeen and a half inches square at the brakewheel and 14” at the tailwheel. Both wheels are wood clasp-arms, the brakewheel having an iron cog ring bolted on in segments, there being 96 teeth in all, while the tailwheel is all-wood with 96 cogs on its rear face. The sack hoist is driven by friction from the upper edge of the tailwheel, on which bears a solid wood drum on the bollard. Both stone nuts are iron mortice. The headstones are 4ft 6” French, the tailstones 4ft peaks.
The tailstones are missing their furniture apart from the tun. The stairwell on the bin floor is on the right hand side, and there is an unidentified machine in the left rear of the floor.
The curved wooden bridgetrees run fore-and-aft. The governors are mounted on the stone spindle extensions.
Thought to date from between 1760 and 1790 (Brown), the mill ceased work in the 1940s and then seems to have rapidly deteriorated. It was restored by a team of enthusiasts, led by Jon Sass, in the 1960s; the buck framework was very badly decayed and had to be completely renewed along with the crosstrees and quarterbars, but the post and machinery are original. The reconstruction is authentic in every respect.
(Rex Wailes 1951 and Grimsby Library 1928; visit by G Blythman 12th September 2008)
WYBERTON
Tower mill, gone
This mill is believed to have had eight sails(1).
(1) RW