I came across this cigarette card on the internet showing a familiar Don Quixote scene with DQ attacking a giant/windmill. The scene includes two postmills. Modern la Mancha mills at la Consuegra are of course tower mills. I was wondering whether the earlier mills were of the post type, or is the artist here showing…
Author: Fred Atkins
Finchingfield Windmill
I wonder if anyone could shed any light on the windmill item attached? It is from the collection of my late friend, ex-neighbour and WSU member, Des Motley. It is a disc (brass?) 25mm in diameter with a tower mill and the text FINCHINGFIELD at the bottom. I wondered whether it might have been a…
Pub sign
A fellow member of the Windmill Study Unit, Stan Darling, recently saw an interesting sign outside The Millstone Inn at Barnack, Stamford, Cambridgeshire. It shows a man and a pair of millstones, with the stones vat upended against the wall. I wonder if anyone knows whether the scene is related to the Barnack tower mill.…
Blocks at Herne Windmill
Set in the inside wall of the ground floor at Herne Mill are a number of wooden blocks each the size of a brick. They are set in various positions. We would like to know what they are there for. Suggestions so far have included “filled-in air bricks” and “to allow for expansion”. Has anyone…
Windmills on stamps
As you probably know, people out there are attempting to augment their income by printing spurious stamps (known as cinderellas) purporting to be issued by various Russian and African states on a variety of subjects, for example windmills and watermills. I have scanned copies of literally hundreds of these. These sheetlets do no harm as…
Corn Mills on London Bridge
This nice stamp shows old London Bridge. I know that there were at some time waterwheels under the arches and I am trying to find out more about the London Bridge corn mills. Can anyone help? Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge#.22Old.22_.28Medieval.29_London_Bridge ) states: The medieval bridge had 19 small arches and a drawbridge with a defensive gatehouse at the…
Mystery Windmill
A new acquaintance has shown me a number of windmills photographed around the 1930s. A number of them were unidentified, but Luke Bonwick kindly and promptly filled in all the blanks except for one. I wonder if anyone can identify the attached photo for me, please? Regards, Fred
Mystery windmill
A friend of mine found an interesting CD-Rom at a local boot fair which consisted of several hundred photos of old postcards – mostly Kent plus some of Sussex. Not many mills, unfortunately, but I rather liked the attached one which I think is probably High Salvingrton. Different angle from the one shown in the…
Photo retouching
I copied Jenny West’s old postcard on Facebook and retouched it with my Picasa 3 program (free from Google). The result is as attached. Not perfect but an improvement aesthetically! I wonder if this is acceptable or would people rather see something less pleasing to the eye? You never know with photos whether they have…