Ramsey Windmill, Essex

Last updated
Ramsey Mill
Ramsey 1920.jpg
The mill in working order, c1920
Origin
Mill nameRamsey Mill
Mill location TM 209 304
Coordinates 51°55′44″N1°12′47″E / 51.929°N 1.213°E / 51.929; 1.213 Coordinates: 51°55′44″N1°12′47″E / 51.929°N 1.213°E / 51.929; 1.213
Operator(s)Private
Year built1842
Information
Purpose Corn mill
Type Post mill
StoreysThree storeys
Roundhouse storeysThree storey roundhouse
No. of sailsFour sails
Type of sails Double Patent sails
Windshaft Cast iron
Winding Fantail
Fantail bladesSix blades
No. of pairs of millstonesThree pairs
Other informationMoved from Woodbridge, Suffolk

Ramsey Windmill is a grade II* listed [1] post mill at Ramsey, Essex, England which has been restored.

Listed building Protected historic structure in the United Kingdom

A listed building, or listed structure, is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, Cadw in Wales, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency in Northern Ireland.

Post mill earliest type of European windmill

The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. Its 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.

Ramsey, Essex village in Ramsey and Parkeston, Tendring, Essex, England

Ramsey is a village on the B1352 road, near the town of Harwich, in the Tendring district, in the English county of Essex. It has a pub called the Castle Inn The village forms part of the civil parish of Ramsey and Parkeston.

Contents

History

Ramsey Windmill was originally built in Woodbridge, Suffolk. It was the north westerly one of four mills on the Mill Hills shown on the 1838 tithe map. The mill was moved to Ramsey in 1842 by Henry Collins, millwright of Woodbridge. The mill was working until the Second World War, and then left to deteriorate until 1974 when the owner, Mr Michael Organ, set about restoring the mill. [2] Members of the Suffolk Mills Group assisted with work on Ramsey Windmill between 1974 and 1978. [3]

Woodbridge, Suffolk town in Suffolk, England

Woodbridge is a town in Suffolk, East Anglia, England, about 8 miles (13 km) from the sea coast. It lies along the River Deben and has a population of about 11,000. The town is served by Woodbridge railway station on the East Suffolk Line. It lies within a short distance of the wider Ipswich urban area. Woodbridge is close to some of the major archaeological sites for the Anglo-Saxon period, one of which includes the Sutton Hoo burial ship. The town's 1100 years of recorded history have bequeathed a variety of historical architecture. There are facilities for boating and for riverside walks.

Suffolk County of England

Suffolk is an East Anglian county of historic origin in 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. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowestoft, Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket, and Felixstowe, one of the largest container ports in Europe.

A millwright is a high-precision craftsman or skilled tradesperson who installs, dismantles, repairs, reassembles, and moves machinery in factories, power plants, and construction sites.

Description

Ramsey Windmill is a post mill with a three-storey roundhouse. The mill was winded by a roof mounted fantail, similar to that seen at Icklesham today. It has four double Patent sails. There are two pairs of millstones in the breast and a third pair in the tail. [2]

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 around Leeds and Hull towards the end of the 18th century. Fantails are found on all types of traditional windmills and are especially useful where changes in wind direction are frequent. They are more common in England, Denmark and Germany than in other parts of Europe, and are little-known on windmills elsewhere except where English millwrighting traditions were in evidence.

Hogg Hill Mill, Icklesham

Hogg Hill Mill is a post mill at Icklesham, Sussex, England which has been restored.

Windmills are powered by their sails. Sails are found in different designs, from primitive common sails to the advanced patent sails.

Trestle and roundhouse

The trestle is of oak. The main post is 17 feet 6 inches (5.33 m) in length, 27 inches (686 mm) square at its base. The mill was built with a roundhouse from the start. Having started life in Suffolk, and being moved by a Suffolk millwright, the normal practice from that county was followed, with the roundhouse having three storeys. [4]

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. Post mills without a roundhouse are known as Open Trestle Post Mills.

Oak genus of plants

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 600 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus, as well as in those of unrelated species such as Grevillea robusta and the Casuarinaceae (she-oaks). The genus Quercus is native to the Northern Hemisphere, and includes deciduous and evergreen species extending from cool temperate to tropical latitudes in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and North Africa. North America contains the largest number of oak species, with approximately 90 occurring in the United States, while Mexico has 160 species of which 109 are endemic. The second greatest center of oak diversity is China, which contains approximately 100 species.

Body

The body of the mill measures 16 feet (4.88 m) by 10 feet 4 inches (3.15 m) in plan. The mill is 48 feet 6 inches (14.78 m) high overall. The Crowntree is 22 1⁄2 inches (570 mm) square in section. The side girts are 9 inches (229 mm) by 14 inches (356 mm) in section. [4]

Sails and Windshaft

Ramsey Mill has a cast iron windshaft and four double Patent sails. [4]

Cast iron iron or a ferrous alloy which has been liquefied then poured into a mould to solidify

Cast iron is a group of iron-carbon alloys with a carbon content greater than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its colour when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impurities which allow cracks to pass straight through, grey cast iron has graphite flakes which deflect a passing crack and initiate countless new cracks as the material breaks, and ductile cast iron has spherical graphite "nodules" which stop the crack from further progressing.

Machinery

The wooden Head Wheel is of clasp arm construction, 7 feet 3 inches (2.21 m) diameter, with 90 cogs of 3 inches (76 mm) pitch. It drives two pairs of overdrift French Burr millstones via a cast iron Wallower and Spur Wheel. The cast iron Tail Wheel is 4 feet (1.22 m) diameter. It drives a single pair of underdrift 3 feet 4 inches (1.02 m) diameter millstones via an Upright Shaft and Spur wheel. [4]

Fantail

Ramsey Windmill was winded by a six-bladed roof mounted fantail, which blew off in 1939. The drive was down the back of the mill and thence to a ring set above the join of the quarterbars to the main post. [4] [5]

Millers

References for above:- [2]

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References

  1. ↑ Historic England. "RAMSEY WINDMILL, THE STREET (north side), RAMSEY AND PARKESTON, TENDRING, ESSEX (1147549)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 2008-05-31.
  2. 1 2 3 Farries, Kenneth (1985). Essex Windmills, Millers and Millwrights - Volume Four- A Review by Parishes, F-R. Edinburgh: Charles Skilton. pp. 107–109. ISBN   0-284-98642-9.
  3. ↑ Suffolk Mills Group (1981). Thelnetham Windmill, Report on the Restoration Programme November 1979 - December 1980. Ipswich: Suffolk Mills Group. p. 12.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Farries, Kenneth (1984). Essex Windmills, Millers and Millwrights - Volume Two - A Technical Review. Edinburgh: Charles Skilton. pp. 29–42. ISBN   0-284-98637-2.
  5. ↑ This is a departure from the normal practice, which is to drive the wheels that carry the external ladder at the back of the mill.
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