Tower mill
Encyclopedia
A tower mill is a type of 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...

 which consists of a brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...

 or stone tower, on top of which sits a roof or cap which can be turned to bring the sails into the wind.

The rotary abilities gave it great convenience over the earlier post mill
Post mill
The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. 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...

s that allowed for a more efficient and stable source of power. Windmills in general had been known to civilization for centuries, the tower mill represented an improvement on the western-style windmills. The tower mill was an important source of power for Europe and the Mediterranean for nearly 600 years from 1300–1900, contributing to 25 percent of the industrial power of all wind machines before the advent of the steam engine and coal power. It represented a modification or a demonstration of improving and adapting technology that had been known by humans for ages. Although these types of mills were effective, some would argue that they were mainly built by more wealthy individuals at first because of their complexity.

History

The tower mill originated in written history in the late 13th century in western Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

; the earliest record of its existence is from 1295, from Stephen de Pencastor of Dover, and the earliest illustrations date from 1390. Other early examples come from Yorkshire and Buckinghamshire. Other sources pin its earliest inception back in 1180 in the form of an illustration on a Norman deed, showing this new western-style windmill. The Netherlands has six mills recorded before the year 1407. One of the earliest tower mills in Britain was Chesterton Mill, Warwickshire, which has a hollowed conical base with arches. The large part of its development continued through the late Middle Ages, towards the end of the 15th century tower mills began appearing across Europe in greater numbers.

The origins of the tower mill can be found in a growing economy of Europe, which needed a more reliable and efficient form of power, especially one that could be used away from a river bank. The spread of tower mills came with a growing economy that called for larger and more stable sources of power. Post mill
Post mill
The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. 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...

s dominated the scene in Europe until the 19th century when tower mills began to replace them in such places as Billingford Mill in Norfolk, Upper Hellesden Mill in Norwich, and Stretham Mill in Cambridgeshire.

The tower mill also was seen as a cultural object, being painted and designed with aesthetic appeal in mind. Styles of the mills reflected on local tradition and weather conditions, for example mills built on the western coast of Britain were mainly built of stone to withstand the stronger winds, and those built in the east were mainly of brick.

In England around 12 eight-sailers, more than 50 six- and 50 five-sailers were built in the late 18th century and 19th century, half of them in Lincolnshire. Of the eight sailed mills only Pocklington's Mill
Heckington Windmill
Heckington Windmill is the only 8-sailed tower windmill still standing in the United Kingdom with its sails intact.Heckington is located about midway between Sleaford and Boston in Lincolnshire...

 in Heckington
Heckington
Heckington is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies between Sleaford and Swineshead Bridge, south of the A17 road. Heckington, with 1491 households, is one of the largest villages in Lincolnshire.-History:...

 survived in fully functional state. A few of the other ones exist as four-sailed mills (Old Buckenham
Old Buckenham
Old Buckenham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, approximately south-west of Norwich.It covers an area of and had a population of 1,294 in 658 households as of the2001 census...

), as residences (Diss
Diss
Diss is a town in Norfolk, England close to the border with the neighbouring East Anglian county of Suffolk.The town lies in the valley of the River Waveney, around a mere that covers . The mere is up to deep, although there is another of mud, making it one of the deepest natural inland lakes...

 Button's Mill), as ruins (Leach's Windmill, Wisbech
Wisbech
Wisbech is a market town, inland port and civil parish with a population of 20,200 in the Fens of Cambridgeshire. The tidal River Nene runs through the centre of the town and is spanned by two bridges...

), or have been dismantled (Holbeach Mill; Skirbeck Mill, Boston). In Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

 some of the six-sailed (Sibsey
Sibsey
Sibsey is a civil parish and village on the A16 road and B1184 in the English county of Lincolnshire, north of Boston in the district of East Lindsey. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 1,996. Sibsey Northlands is to the north of the village...

 Trader Mill
, Waltham Windmill
Waltham Windmill
Waltham Windmill is a six-sailed windmill located in the village of Waltham, five miles from Grimsby in North East Lincolnshire. It is renowned in the area for having all six sails still in full working capacity, being one of the very few windmills like this in the United Kingdom.-Construction:The...

)
and five-sailed (Dobson's Mill in Burgh le Marsh
Burgh Le Marsh
Burgh-le-Marsh is a town to the west of Skegness in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. The A158 used to run through from west to east but this was rerouted when a new bypass opened in late 2007. The village has a population of 2,016....

, Maud Foster Windmill
Maud Foster Windmill
Maud Foster Windmill is a seven-storey, five sail windmill located by the Maud Foster Drain in Skirbeck, Boston, Lincolnshire, which she takes her name from...

in Boston
Boston, Lincolnshire
Boston is a town and small port in Lincolnshire, on the east coast of England. It is the largest town of the wider Borough of Boston local government district and had a total population of 55,750 at the 2001 census...

, Hoyle's Mill in Alford
Alford, Lincolnshire
- Notable residents :* Captain John Smith who lived in nearby Willoughby* Anne Hutchinson, pioneer settler and religious reformer in the United States* Thomas Paine, who was an excise officer in the town....

) slender (mostly tarred) tower mills with their white onion-shaped cap and a huge fantail are still there and working today. Other former five- and six-sailed Lincolnshire and Yorkshire tower mills now without sails and partly without cap are LeTall's Mill in Lincoln
Lincoln, Lincolnshire
Lincoln is a cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England.The non-metropolitan district of Lincoln has a population of 85,595; the 2001 census gave the entire area of Lincoln a population of 120,779....

, Holgate Windmill
Holgate Windmill
Holgate Windmill is a tower mill at Holgate in York, North Yorkshire, England which is under restoration.-History:Holgate tower windmill was built in 1770 of brickstones by its first owner and miller George Waud. He, his son and grandson ran the mill until 1851, and a dwelling-house was erected...

in Holgate
Holgate, North Yorkshire
Holgate is a suburb and Unitary Authority Ward in the City of York. It is bounded by the River Ouse from Scarbourough Bridge to Ouse Acres on its northern boundary. Its western boundary is formed by one side of Carr Lane and Ouse Acres to the junction of York Road/Acomb Road, which forms part of...

, York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

 (currently being restored), Black, Cliff, or Whiting's Mill (a seven-storeyed chalk
Chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....

 mill) in Hessle
Hessle
Hessle is a town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, situated west of Kingston upon Hull city centre. Geographically it is part of a larger urban area which consists of the city of Kingston upon Hull, the town of Hessle and a number of other villages but is not part of the...

 and (with originally six sails) Barton-upon-Humber
Barton-upon-Humber
Barton-upon-Humber or Barton is a small town and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary, and at the end of the Humber Bridge. It lies east of Leeds, southwest of Hull and north northeast of the county town of Lincoln...

 Tower mill
, Brunswick Mill in Long Sutton, Lincolnshire
Long Sutton, Lincolnshire
Long Sutton, is a market town in Lincolnshire, England. Located in South Holland district, it lies close to the Wash.-Geography:The town has an estimated population of 5,037 in 2007. It is 13 miles east from Spalding.-Lincolnshire Fens:...

, Metheringham Windmill
Metheringham Windmill
Metheringham Windmill, locally known as The Old Meg Flour Mill, was a six-storeyed, six-sailed, and tarred slender Lincolnshire type windmill with the typical white onion-shaped cap with fantail, built in 1867 to be used to grind flour from grain...

, Penny Hill Windmill in Holbeach
Holbeach
Holbeach is a fenland market town with in the South Holland district of southern Lincolnshire, England. The town lies from Spalding; from Boston; from King's Lynn; from Peterborough; and a by road from the county town of Lincoln. It is on the junction of the A151 and A17...

, Wragby
Wragby
Wragby is a small town and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is located approximately north-west from Horncastle and about north east of the city of Lincoln.- History :...

 Mill
(built by E. Ingledew in 1831, millwright of Heckington Mill in 1830), and Wellingore
Wellingore
Wellingore is a small rural village in Lincolnshire, approximately south of Lincoln, England on the A607 in the district of North Kesteven. It is just south of Navenby.-History:...

 Tower Mill
. Another fine six-sailer can be found in Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

 – England's only sandstone towered windmill at Heage
Heage
The village of Heage in Derbyshire is situated midway between Belper and Ripley and is today famous for its recently-restored six-sailed windmill. Work on building the mill started in 1791 and it was first recorded as working in 1797...

 of 1791.

Design

The advantage of the tower mill over the earlier post mill
Post mill
The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. 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...

 is that it is not necessary to turn the whole mill ("body", "buck") with all its machinery into the wind; this allows more space for the machinery as well as for storage. However, select tower mills found around Holland were constructed on a wooden frame so as to rotate the entire foundation of the mill along with the cap. These towers were often constructed out of wood rather than masonry as well. A movable head which could pivot to react to the changing wind patterns was the most important aspect of the tower mill. This ability gave the advantage of a larger and more stable frame that could deal with harsh weather. Also, only moving a cap was much easier than moving an entire structure.

In the earliest tower mills the cap was turned into the wind with a long tail-pole which stretched down to the ground at the back of the mill. Later an endless chain was used which drove the cap through gearing. In 1745 an English engineer, Edmund Lee, invented the windmill fantail
Windmill fantail
A Fantail is a small windmill mounted at right angles to the sails, at the rear of the windmill, and which turns the cap automatically to bring it into the wind. The fantail was patented in 1745 by Edmund Lee, a blacksmith working at Brockmill Forge near Wigan, England, and perfected on mills...

 – a little windmill mounted at right angles to the sails, at the rear of the mill, and which turned the cap automatically to bring it into the wind.

Like other windmills tower mills have normally four blades. To increase windmill efficiency millwrights experimented with different methods:
  • automated patent-sails instead of cloth spread type sails didn't need the sail cross to be stopped to spread or remove the cloth sails because they altered the surface from inside the mill by means of a controlling gear.
  • more than four blades to increase the sail surface.


Therefore engineer John Smeaton
John Smeaton
John Smeaton, FRS, was an English civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist...

 invented the cast-iron Lincolnshire cross to make sail-crosses with five, six, and even eight blades possible. The cross was named after Lincolnshire where it was most widely used.

There are several components to the tower mill as it was in the 19th Century in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 in its most developed stage, some elements such as the gallery are not present in all tower mills:
  • Stock – the arm that protrudes from the top of windmill holding the frame of the sail in place, this is the main support of the sail and is usually made of wood.
  • Sail – the turning frame that catches the wind, attached and held by the stock. The traditional style found on most tower mills is a four-sail frame, however in the Mediterranean model there is usually an eight-sail frame. An example of this in St. Mary's Mill on the Isle of Sicilly constructed in 1820.
  • Windshaft – A particularly important part of the sail frame, the windshaft is the cylindrical piece that translates the movement of the sail into the machinery within the windmill.
  • Cap – The top of the tower that holds the sail and stock, this piece is able to rotate on top of the tower.
  • Tower – Supports the cap, the main structure of the tower mill.
  • Floor – Base level of the tower inside, usually where grain or other products are stored.
  • Gallery – Deck surrounding the floor outside the tower to provide access around the tower mill if it is raised, not present in all tower mills. The gallery allowed access to the sails for making repairs because they could not be easily reached from the ground in larger mills.
  • Frame – Sail design that forms the outline of the sail, usually a meshed wood design that then is covered in cloth. The Mediterrenean design is different in that there are several sails on the sail-frame and each supports a draped cloth and there is no wooden frame behind it.
  • Fantail – Orientation device that is attached to the cap, allowing it to rotate to keep the sails in the direction of the wind.
  • Hemlath – Thick wooden sailbar on the side of the frame that keeps the narrower sailbars inside the sail.
  • Sailbar – Elongated piece of wood that forms a sail.
  • Sail cloth – Cloth attached to a sail that collects wind energy; a large sail cloth is used for weak winds and a small sail cloth for strong winds.

Application

The tower mill was more powerful than the water mill, able to generate roughly 20 to 30 horsepower.
There were many uses that the tower mill had aside from grinding corn. Tower Mills fueled a society that was steadily growing in its need for power by providing a service to other industries as well:
  • The production of pepper
    Black pepper
    Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is approximately in diameter, dark red when fully mature, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed...

     and other spices
  • Lumber companies used them for powering sawmills
  • Paper companies used to change wood pulp into paper


Other sources argue against this claiming there is no real evidence, specifically, of tower mills doing these things.

Interesting facts

The world's tallest tower mills can be found in Schiedam
Schiedam
Schiedam is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. It is part of the Rotterdam metropolitan area. The city is located west of Rotterdam, east of Vlaardingen and south of Delft...

, 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...

 with the highest mill being De Nolet (built in 2006 as a "generator
Wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or...

 mill" producing electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

 and named after the local Nolet distilling family the mill belongs to, 140 ft / 42.5 metres to cap) and De Noord (The North, corn mill of 1803), 109 ft / 33.5 metres to cap) both in working order.

England's tallest tower mill is the nine-storeyed Moulton Windmill
Moulton Windmill
Moulton Windmill in the Lincolnshire village of Moulton, between Spalding and Holbeach is a restored windmill claimed to be the tallest tower mill in the United Kingdom....

 in Moulton, Lincolnshire
Moulton, Lincolnshire
Moulton is the primary village of an extensive Fenland parish, over in length, and encompassing the smaller hamlets/villages of Moulton Chapel, Moulton Seas End and Moulton Eaugate....

, with a cap height of 97.5 ft / 30 metres. Since 2005 the mill has a new white rotatable cap with windshaft and fantail in place but without her four patent sails. The stage was erected during April / May 2008.

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...

 windmills named torenmolens (tower mills) have a compact-built, cylindric or only slightly conical tower. In the southern Netherlands four mills of that type (Dutch definition) survived, the oldest one built in 1441. The cap of three of those mills is turned by a luffing gear built in the cap. Older types of the tower mill could be found on castles, fortresses or city walls with a fixed cap since the 14th century, and are still be found around the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

. They were built with the sails facing the prevailing wind direction.

Tower mills were very expensive to build with estimates suggesting almost twice that of post mills, which is in part why they weren't very prevalent until centuries after invention. Sometimes these mills were even built on the sides of castles and towers in fortified towns to make them resistant to attacks. Some tower mills were still in operation well into the 20th century in the southern parts of the United Kingdom.

External links

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