Continued from page 33 dating of structural timbers using dendro- chronology – tree-ring dating – a fascinating insight into their development is starting to emerge. Some surviving post mills contain fabric now identified as being considerably older than was previously anticipated. The post mill at Drinkstone in Suffolk
retains some of the oldest timber fabric to be dated so far. Its post, the massive oak timber on the top of which the body, or buck, of the mill which contains the machinery and carries the sails is rotated, has been dated to 1586/7; and some other timbers within the mill date from the mid 16th century. The post mill at Madingley – which stood originally at Easton and was later moved to Ellington – both in Huntingdonshire, was moved to its present site in Cambridgeshire in 1935-6. Its post has been dated to 1528, and the timber from which it was made was felled at about the same time as that of Nutley mill, East Sussex, which has the distinction of having the oldest post in terms of when the oak tree from which it was cut started growing. The windshaft atMadingley has also been dated by dendrochronology to 1586 – a remarkable and significant survival of an early mechanical component. Other post mills with 16th and 17th century
fabric stand at Great Gransden and Bourn in Cambridgeshire, at Cromer, Hertfordshire, and Pitstone Green in Buckinghamshire. Some of these mills have dates either cut into timbers or traditionally associated with them, which suggest several phases of building or repair and, in some instances, probably record comprehensive rebuilding after storm damage. Mills, windmills in particular, are essentially multi-phase engines which are very vulnerable to weathering and storm damage. The process of continuous repair and replacement of parts, due to breakage, changes in technology and sometimes simply fashion, is one of the reasons that they make such a fascinating study and yet can be very difficult to interpret without detailed structural and mechanical analysis and background research.
to be driven by the sails. The “head and tail” layout, where two pairs of millstones are driven directly from two gears mounted on the windshaft, can still be seen in several mills, including those at Great Gransden and Nutley, and formerly at Bourn, where only the head stones remain in their working position. At Cromer a head and tail arrangement was superseded by the surviving 19th-century layout, with two pairs of millstones driven by spur gearing in the head of the mill. A similar arrangement also can be found at Brill, a post mill dating from the 1680s, which has been the
I 36 Cornerstone, Vol 32, No 2 2011
t was perhaps in post mills that the first development of mechanical drive took place during the 17th century, which enabled more than one pair of millstones
Above, a
traditional post mill
depicted on a 17th-century English
woodcut.
Above right, the post mill at Madingley
– its third site – had a post which dates back to 1528.
Right, the post mill at
Drinkstone in Suffolk has
wood which has been
dated to the mid to late 16th century
SIMON BARBER
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