The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill

Windmill

A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...

. The defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. The earliest post mills in England are thought to have been built in the 12th century. The earliest working post mill in England

Outwood Windmill

Outwood Windmill is a Grade I listed post mill in Outwood, Surrey. Built in 1665 by Thomas Budgen, a miller from Nutfield in Surrey, it is Britain's oldest working windmill....

 still used today is to be found at Outwood in Surrey

Outwood, Surrey

Outwood is a village in the Surrey weald. It is home to the oldest working windmill in England. The village lies to the east of the M23 which runs between the M25 and London Gatwick Airport. A neighbouring village is Smallfield....

. It was built in 1665. The earliest remaining example of a non operational mill can be found in Great Gransden

Great Gransden

Great Gransden parish is west of the county town of Cambridge, south-east of Huntingdon and north of London. It covers an area of . The village stands on the B1046 road between Abbotsley, to the west, and Longstowe, to the east...

 in Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...

, built in 1612.
Their design and usage peaked in the 18th and 19th centuries and then declined after the introduction of high-speed steam-driven milling machinery Many still exist today, primarily to be found in Northern Europe

Northern Europe

Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. Northern Europe typically refers to the seven countries in the northern part of the European subcontinent which includes Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland and Sweden...

 and Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

. The term peg mill or peg and post mill (in which the "post" was the tailpole used to turn the mill into the wind) was used in north west England, and stob mill in north east England, to describe mills of this type.

Sunk post mill

The earliest post mills were quite small, and this led to problems with stability as they were liable to blow down in strong winds. A solution was found by burying the bottom of the trestle

Trestle (mill)

The Trestle of a Post mill is the arrangement of the Main post, crosstrees and quarterbars that form the substructure of this type of windmill. It may or may not be surrounded by a roundhouse...

 in a mound of earth. The last sunk post mills in England were at Warton

Warton, Fylde

Warton is a village on the Fylde in Lancashire, England.The village is about six miles from Preston and eight miles from Blackpool. It is located on the banks of the River Ribble, close to its entry into the Irish Sea. It is best known for its airfield, BAE Warton and its associated aircraft works...

, Lancashire, and Essington

Essington

Essington is a village and civil parish in South Staffordshire, England. It is considered by the Office for National Statistics to be part of the Wolverhampton Urban Subdivision, and is within the West Midlands conurbation....

, Staffordshire.

Open Trestle post mill

As mills were made bigger, it was found that the trestle did not need to be buried. Thus the open trestle post mills were built. The oldest surviving is at Great Gransden

Great Gransden

Great Gransden parish is west of the county town of Cambridge, south-east of Huntingdon and north of London. It covers an area of . The village stands on the B1046 road between Abbotsley, to the west, and Longstowe, to the east...

, Cambridgeshire. Others exist in the UK at Bourn

Bourn

Bourn is a small village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England. Surrounding villages include Caxton, Eltisley and Cambourne. It is 8 miles from the county town of Cambridge. The population of the parish was 1,764 people at the time of the 2001 census.Bourn has a Church of England...

, Cambridgeshire; Great Chishill

Great Chishill

Great Chishill is a village forming part of the civil parish of Great and Little Chishill in the south of the county of Cambridgeshire. The church is in the Perpendicular style and is dedicated to Swithun....

, Cambridgeshire; Nutley

Nutley Windmill

Nutley Windmill is a grade II* listed open trestle post mill at Nutley, East Sussex, England which has been restored to working order.-History:...

, Sussex and Chillenden

Chillenden Windmill

Chillenden windmill is a grade II* listed open trestle post mill north of Chillenden, Kent, England. It is the last post mill built in Kent.-History:...

, Kent. Open trestle post mills are also found in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and in New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

, USA.

Post mill with roundhouse

The space around the trestle could be used for storage, but was open to the weather. Mill owners started to build roundhouses around the trestles, and later mills were built with a roundhouse from new. This had the dual advantage of creating a covered storage area and protecting the trestle from the weather. In Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

, millwright

Millwright

A millwright is a craftsman or tradesman engaged with the construction and maintenance of machinery.Early millwrights were specialist carpenters who erected machines used in agriculture, food processing and processing lumber and paper...

s would build post mills mounted on tall, two or three storey roundhouses, as at Saxtead Green.

Midlands post mill

In the Midlands and North West of England, the top of the roundhouse had a curb, and rollers affixed to the mill body enabled the roundhouse to bear some of the weight of the mill. Examples of Midlands post mills extant include Danzey Green mill, (preserved at Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings

Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings

Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings is an open-air museum of rescued buildings which have been relocated to its site in Stoke Heath, a district of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England. Founded in 1963 and opened in 1967, the museum was conceived following the dismantling of a 15th-century...

) and the mill at Wrawby, Lincolnshire.

Alternative ways to protect the trestle

In eastern Europe, instead of a roundhouse an "apron" was fitted to the bottom of the body of the mill, enclosing the trestle and thereby affording protection from the weather.

Hollow Post mill

Some post mills are hollow post mills. In these mills the main post is bored to take a driveshaft, similar to an Upright Shaft in a smock

Smock mill

The smock mill is a type of windmill that consists of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded tower, usually with six or eight sides. It is topped with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind...

 or tower mill

Tower mill

A tower mill is a type of windmill which consists of a brick or stone tower, on top of which sits a roof or cap which can be turned to bring the sails into the wind....

. This enables the mill to drive machinery in the base or roundhouse. Hollow post mills were not common in the United Kingdom. In the Netherlands, they are called Wipmolen and were used for drainage. In France, the Moulin Cavier was a type of hollow post mill used for corn milling.

Composite mill

A few mills looked like post mills, but were not post mills. These composite mills often had a post mill body mounted on a short tower resembling a roundhouse, as at Banham and Thornham

Thornham, Norfolk

Thornham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the north Norfolk coast some north-east of the seaside resort of Hunstanton, north of the town of King's Lynn and north-west of the city of Norwich....

 in Norfolk. Composite mills lack the central post on which the body of the post mill is mounted and turns upon to enable the mill to face the wind.

Paltrok mill

In the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 and Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, a variety of mill called the Paltrok mill (Low German spelling Paltrock, from High German Pfalzrock (Palatinate skirt); the shape of the millhouse resembles that kind of garment) was built, initially for sawing wood. Like post windmills the entire millhouse rotates. They are supported on a wooden or iron rim bearing, set into the ground or on a brick base, and the millhouse rotates on numerous rollers or small wheels. These mills resemble square smock mill

Smock mill

The smock mill is a type of windmill that consists of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded tower, usually with six or eight sides. It is topped with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind...

s, and are technically composite mills although the tower is very short and of large diameter. There are five paltrock mills remaining in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, at Zaanse Schans

Zaanse Schans

Zaanse Schans is a neighbourhood of Zaandam, near Zaandijk in the municipality ofZaanstad in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It has a collection...

, Haarlem

Haarlem

Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

, Zaandam

Zaandam

Zaandam is a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the main city of the municipality of Zaanstad, and received city rights in 1811...

, Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

 and at the Netherlands Open Air Museum, Arnhem

Arnhem

Arnhem is a city and municipality, situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland and located near the river Nederrijn as well as near the St. Jansbeek, which was the source of the city's development. Arnhem has 146,095 residents as one of the...

. Other Paltrock mills survive in Germany, including one at the International Wind- and Watermill Museum

International Wind- and Watermill Museum

The International Wind- and Watermill Museum , at Gifhorn in the German state of Lower Saxony, is the only one of its kind in Europe. On the museum's open air site, which covers an area of around , there are currently 16 mills from 12 different countries . The mills are either original or faithful...

.

External links

• Outwood Windmill Website
• Sussex Mills Group information on Post mills