please empty your brain below
I've never truly understood how all the holes inthe sails let it work, still. After all, I've never seen a yacht with that many holes in its sails. Did they explain?

Ham | Homepage | 12.05.08 - 9:53 a.m. | #

There's also the Wandsworth windmill, but it looks a little sad and pathetic and is unlikely to ever be restored to any semblance of working order.

Chz | Homepage | 12.05.08 - 10:05 a.m. | #

Ham - I think they probably took the skins off the sails deliberately to stop them going round or blowing off - that worked well then.....

Johnny Topaz | 12.05.08 - 10:38 a.m. | #

I've been past that windmill many times over the years, but never managed to be there when it was open.

I knew about the weekend event, but was otherwise spoken for. Perhaps next year...

DTL | Homepage | 12.05.08 - 11:01 a.m. | #

Now that explains all the activity around Shirley Windmill on Sunday! My old 6th form used to be on that site, until they closed it and converted it into housing. I must say that was the best thing for the windmill because it was a bit shabby when the school was there.

embo | 12.05.08 - 12:53 p.m. | #

My father's family used to own lots of windmills in Norfolk, and continued in the grain trade until the early 1990s when they were put under in the recession.

Being a loyal East Anglian, I like to think that we flatlanders have the best ones.

Tom Burroughes | 12.05.08 - 1:36 p.m. | #

I knew May is Museums & Galleries Month - still have to get to one though!

Used to live near Brixton mill. Knew the surviving members of the family that had owned/worked it too.

Bronchitikat | Homepage | 12.05.08 - 2:17 p.m. | #

Remarkable posting! That's a truly heroic deed those volunteers have done to save the windmill and keep it working.

It will be loss to culture in general the day there are no more windmills.

john | Homepage | 12.05.08 - 3:51 p.m. | #

Sorry Tom but I think WE have the best in HOLLAND.

We also have a special day for windmills

michael Fairweather | 12.05.08 - 6:14 p.m. | #

To be fair to Essex CC, dg, in 1937 (see Upminster mill history) derelict mills were three a penny, and there was very little interest in industrial archaeology then. After 1960, Essex CC kept its 5 windmills (deliberately including 1 of each of the 3 main types) - Stock, Aythorpe Roding, Mountnessing, Upminster and Finchingfield - all regularly painted,wind and weatherproofed to prevent further deterioration and fitted with skeleton sails out of public funds. As you say, in 1965, Upminster mill was transferred to Havering but in a much better state than if Essex had not intervened, having significantly greater resources at its disposal than Hornchurch UDC.

felix | 12.05.08 - 6:38 p.m. | #

I hope this isn't going off on too much of a tangent... Tower Hamlets has links to an Essex windmill by proxy - thanks to Tower Hamlets' Rural Studies Centre at Gorsefield. The centre is in the village of Stanstead Mountfitchet where the Tower Mill of the same name can be found.

Thanks to residential school trips to Gorsefield, many an inner-city urchin (including myself) have explored a real windmill (in the proper countryside!) and harboured a secret fondness for them ever since. So I do wish I'd known about this weekend beforehand.

s | 13.05.08 - 12:25 p.m. | #











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