Debden Windmill is a grade II listed 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....

 at Debden

Debden, Uttlesford

Debden is a small rural village in the Uttlesford district of Essex in the East of England.It is located 4 miles from Saffron Walden and 17 miles from Cambridge.RAF Debden is nearby and played a role in the Second World War....

, Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 which has been converted to residential use.

History

Debden Windmill was built in 1796, replacing a 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...

 which stood nearby. It was insured in 1797 by William Thurgood for £500 including the going gears and stock in trade. The 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...

 was blown off the mill on 26 March 1882 and the cap and sails

Windmill sail

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

 were blown off on a Sunday in October 1887. Repairs were completed by 15 March 1888. The mill was working until 1911, in which year the sails and windshaft were removed. The mill was used as a scout hut in the 1930s and was little more than a shell in the 1950s. In 1957, a new cap was fitted and the mill converted to residential use.

Description

Debden Windmill is a four storey tower mill. When working it carried a conical cap with a gallery, winded by a fantail. The windshaft was cast iron

Cast iron

Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...

 and carried four double Patent sails which rotated clockwise. The Brake wheel was wood, driving a cast iron Wallower carried on a wooden Upright Shaft. The wooden Great Spur Wheel drove three pairs of millstone

Millstone

Millstones or mill stones are used in windmills and watermills, including tide mills, for grinding wheat or other grains.The type of stone most suitable for making millstones is a siliceous rock called burrstone , an open-textured, porous but tough, fine-grained sandstone, or a silicified,...

s.

Millers

• William Thurgood 1797
• Isaac Thurgood 1832
• John Holland Jr 1844
• John Dennison 1855
• Frank Holland 1870–1874
• Alfred Ely 1878–1890
• Charles (Clap) Ennos & Sons 1894 - 1910

References for above:-

External links

• Windmill World webpage on Debden Mill