Post Mills, VT

Pitstone Windmill, an early 17th Century post mill

Mill near Nederasselt (The Netherlands)

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 been built in the 11th and 12th centuries. The earliest working post mill in England still used today is to be found at Outwood in Surrey [1]. It was built in 1665. The earliest remaining example of a non operational mill can be found in Great Gransden in Cambridgeshire. The date 1614 can still be seen carved into a minor beam in the mill's spout [2]

Their design and usage peaked in the 1700s and 1800s and then declined after the introduction of high-speed steam-driven milling machinery [3] Many still exist today, primarily to be found in Northern Europe and Great Britain. 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.

External Links

• Outwood Windmill Website

• Sussex Mills Group information on Post mills

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