Heckington Windmill
Encyclopedia
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...
still standing in the United Kingdom with its sails intact.
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:...
is located about midway between Sleaford
Sleaford
Sleaford is a town in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is located thirteen miles northeast of Grantham, seventeen miles west of Boston, and nineteen miles south of Lincoln, and had a total resident population of around 14,500 in 6,167 households at the time...
and 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...
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...
. The mill stands very close to Heckington railway station, hence its previous name of the Station Mill in the 19th century.
Construction
It was built in 1830 to plans by millwright Edward Ingeldew (who also built, among others, WragbyWragby
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 :...
tower mill in 1831, 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...
in 1837, and the former Pickworth
Pickworth, Lincolnshire
Pickworth is a civil parish and village in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England.Pickworth was mentioned in Domesday Book of 1086 when it had forty households and a church....
tower mill) for her first owner and founder Michael Hare of red brick, the outer walls being tarred (provided with a black bitumen paint in order to successfully keep moisture out), as a five-sailed windmill (very similar to Alford Windmill
Alford Windmill
Alford Windmill is a five-sailed windmill in Alford, Lincolnshire and the only surviving windmill out of four. Today the windmill has been restored to working order, and grinds grain to organic flour...
) with Sutton's single patent sails (15 feet tip-width and 12 feet heel-width) providing longitudinal shutters on both sides of the backs (36 feet in length). The mill has six storeys called "floors": ground floor, meal floor, stone (stage) floor, lower bin floor, upper bin floor (hoist floor), dust or cap floor.
History
At that time the five-armed sail-cross drove three pairs of stones and milled grain for a 60-year period of time. But Mr Hare already died in 1834, and the mill handed over to Mr Sleighton Nash and then to Mr Joseph Nash who became its last miller before its defunction in 1890. A horrible tail-wind made the sails run backwards after the destruction of the fantail by lightning leaving the cap rotating uncontrolled, blew off the entire cap with the curb smashing it with parts of the upper gear and all the five sails to pieces, and destroyed the tower rim. Mr Nash had to abandoned the wrecked mill.In 1891 a Mr John Pocklington of Wyberton mill had bought the eight-sailed mill cap with gear of the 78-year-old defunct Tuxford's mill (built in 1813 at Skirbeck
Skirbeck
Skirbeck is a suburb and former civil parish in the Borough of Boston in the county of Lincolnshire, England. Skirbeck is a long v-shaped formation wrapped around the south and east side of Boston parish. It has been incorporated into the Borough of Boston since 1932...
by the Tuxford millwright family as an example of their fine work) for just £72 at auction in Boston without any plans (N.B. the cost of a towerwindmill were ~£2.000 in 1830). As a condition of the deal, he had to remove all the machinery from the mill site. So he was in an urgent need for a suitable mill stump to mount the cap on, as he had no place to put his new acquisition. Luckily he came across the wrecked Heckington mill, bought it subsequently, and, from 1891 until early 1892, he fitted the white onion-shaped and 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...
-driven Tuxford's Mill cap to the Heckington Mill and set it working for the following 54 years. Later on he installed a large circular saw-mill in a shed on one side, also driven by wind-power using line-shafts. It was used to make elm boards for coffins. John Pocklington was very successful in milling, baking, building, sawing, and farming. In that time and even up today the mill was also called the Pocklington's Mill.
After John Pocklington's death in 1941 the mill stopped working in 1946 for the next 40 years. The shutters ("shades" in Lincs) were removed from the sails. In 1953 the mill came into the hands of Kesteven County Council who made the first restorations preventing the fine old mill from being dismantled and restoring it as a rare landmark. Only four of the eight sails could be installed (from the Old Bolingbroke and Wainfleet St Mary mills, ~ 22/25 miles north east of Heckington). When the mill changed hands to Lincolnshire County Council in 1986 the mill was finally restored to working order (the repairs included the construction of 192 new shades and four new sails sustained by the "Friends of Heckington Mill", with the new sails cross weighing five tons. The cap's overhang assures the fact it is from a mill with a much wider tower top. As a rare feature with post
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...
and smock mill
Smock mill
The smock mill is a type of windmill that consists of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded tower, usually with six or eight sides. It is topped with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind...
s (Dutch type mills) and common with "sail windmills" (with pole-shaped sailstocks and triangular sails) such as 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...
) the sail-tips are linked together by steel rods or cables to prevent sagging in the sails, a probably unnecessary work with this kind of mill sails. Parts of the bigger timber wheels have iron teeth instead of wooden ones. Among the six floors the third one being the lower of the two bin floors provides two grain cleaners-a modern one driven by an electric motor and the other an old wind-driven separator. On the second floor, the stone and stage floor, there are the original three pairs of stones (two pairs of grey and one pair of French quartzite stones) and a drive down to the first floor with a fourth pair of stones. On the ground floor a fifth pair of stones was installed which could also be driven by wind if desired or rather by engine. The mill houses a mixer on the first floor and in addition an elevator from the ground floor. Due to its large sail area supplied by its eight sails and its well-winded site the mill is able to drive four pairs of millstones - now 2 pairs of French (quartzite) stones and 2 pairs of so called Peak stones (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...
sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
) and is able to work in very light breezes, when other local mills don't. An additional dresser is used to make white flour from time to time.
Now the distinctive eight-sails windmill is run by the Friends of Heckington Mill and was reopened in 1986. In 2004 the mill underwent its last larger restoration.
Opening Times
The mill is open to visitors:- Open Easter to mid July Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holidays 12 noon - 5 pm.
- Open mid July to mid September daily, 12 noon - 5 pm.
- Open mid September to end of October 1 pm - 4 pm
- November to Easter open Sunday, 1 pm - 4 pm.
Eight Sailed Windmills
Heckington Windmill is the last one of around 12 eight-sailed windmills in all England and four in Lincolnshire including- Skirbeck Mill (Tuxford's Mill), Boston, LincolnshireBoston, LincolnshireBoston 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...
- HolbeachHolbeachHolbeach 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...
Mill - Preston Place Mill, AngmeringAngmeringAngmering is a large village and civil parish between Littlehampton and Worthing in West Sussex, England. It is located approximately two miles north of the English Channel; Worthing and Littlehampton are about four miles to the east and west respectively.Angmering railway station is miles away...
, SussexSussexSussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
(a small multipurpose mill for farming use) - Old BuckenhamOld BuckenhamOld 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...
tower windmill, NorfolkNorfolkNorfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, still standing as a four-sailed mill after her damage in 1879 - DissDissDiss 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...
Victoria Road tower mill, in 1880 converted into a four-sailed mill (in 1972 into a residence) - Leach's tower mill in WisbechWisbechWisbech 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...
, CambridgeshireCambridgeshireCambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, the eight-storeyed now defunct tallest eight-sailer ever built.
These mills were partly converted into four-sailed mills, into residences, were dismantled, or still exist as ruins.
Mediterranean windmills ("sail-windmills") seem to have more sails, but their sails are in fact up to six long poles ('polestocks') forming a wheel-shaped sail-cross of 12 round sailstocks each holding one triangular sail. They don't have shutter-type or lattice-type sails (with canvas sails attached to the lattice blades) as they come with Dutch-type windmills the Heckington Windmill belongs to. Beside this there are a few post mills in Northern and Eastern Europe with six short (~ 15 ft) paddle-shaped sails, and in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
there are some eight-sailed hollow-post windmills with a similar type of short sails.
External links
- Photo
- Photo
- descriptive site
- VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klOalvIQSf0
- VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxzKf_4jGkQ
