traditions were strong, however, such as the south-west of England, it is possible that some standing mill towers, now gutted of machinery and surviving more or less as landmarks, may be of late medieval date. Two windmills are shown on a chart of 1626
at Easton on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, and there is no good reason to doubt that the two empty towers that still stand there are the remains of these early 17th-century windmills. The earliest-dated complete tower mill in England stands above the Fosseway at Chesterton, Warwickshire, and dates from 1632. Chesterton windmill was designed by, or for, Sir Edward Peyto, a local landowner and, although exceptional architecturally – and thus atypical in windmill terms – its machinery is thought to represent the oldest survival of spur gearing in an English windmill. Although the windshaft and principal gears were renewed in a restoration carried out in the early1970s, the original timber shaft and gears were faithfully replicated. It is an interesting aside to consider that such replication of historic machinery, to allow one of the two pairs of millstones in the mill to be worked again using wind power, would probably not be condoned now. The timber-framed form of tower mill, the
smock mill, is thought to be a post-medieval introduction, originally for use as a drainage engine. Smock mills were built most widely in areas where a strong timber-framing tradition existed, although few early examples have survived. The smock mill at Lacey Green,
38 Cornerstone, Vol 32, No 2 2011
Above, the mill at Pitstone Green in Buckinghamshire bears the date
1627 carved into one of its
timbers, but may predate this.
It is in the care of
the National Trust Right, moving a postmill,
depicted in a late 18th-century
painting, was a major
undertaking, in this case
involving more than 80 oxen under harness
Buckinghamshire, is traditionally ascribed a date of circa 1650, although the evidence on which this dating is based is uncertain. The mill certainly possesses a number of features and mechanical elements that are considered to be of 17th-century origin. Although brought back from the brink of complete collapse by a comprehensive repair and refurbishment programme carried out by the Chiltern Society in the 1970s and early 1980s, the framing of the tower, much of which was able to be preserved, and the fine timber machinery would undoubtedly repay further detailed study. It has also been suggested that this mill may have been moved; although
there is no clear evidence in this case, it is important to bear this possibility in mind when looking at such timber structures as post and smock mills. Windmills are now something of a
diminishing resource. Fifty years ago there were fewer than 100 post mills standing in England; now there are only 45. Tower and smock mills have suffered a comparable reduction in numbers, and the timber-framing of smock mills makes them extremely vulnerable to weathering and decay. It is therefore essential that the individual biographies of those windmills that still stand are researched and written while the opportunity exists.
PRIVATE COLLECTION/FINE ART SOCIETY/BRIDGEMAN
JOHN LAWRENCE
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