Upminster Windmill
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox Windmill Upminster Windmill is a Grade II* listed<ref name=EH>Template:NHLE</ref> smock mill located in Upminster in the London Borough of Havering, England. It was formerly known as Abraham's Mill and was in Essex when built. Between 2016 and 2023 the mill was restored to working order and a visitor centre was constructed. The mill and visitor centre are open to the public at selected times.
HistoryEdit
Although there had been a windmill in Upminster since at least 1768,<ref name=Neale>Template:Cite book</ref> this mill was built for James Nokes of Hunt's Farm in Corbets Tey Road in 1803 on land transferred from Bridge House Farm which was owned by his brother William. It had four Common sails and drove three pairs of millstones. A steam engine was added early in 1811 driving two pairs of millstones, an action which increased the rateable value of the mill from £30 to £77.<ref name="upminster mill">Template:Cite book</ref> A fourth pair of millstones was added to the mill. James Nokes died in 1838 and the mill passed to his son Thomas. A fifth pair of millstones had been added by 1849 when Thomas Nokes was bankrupt. By 1856 the mill was driving six pairs of millstones by wind and steam. Thomas Abraham purchased the mill in 1857, having previously been in the employ of Nokes at both West Thurrock windmill and Upminster. He had also been in business at a steam mill in Navestock for the previous two years.<ref name=Book5>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1876, the upright shaft was broken in an accident at the mill. It was repaired with a cast-iron coupling.<ref name=Book2/>
Thomas Abraham died in 1882 and the mill passed to John Arkell Abraham. In 1889 the mill was struck by lightning and on 5 January 1900 the windshaft snapped at the neck and the sails crashed to the ground. A windshaft from a post mill near Maldon was fitted along with four new sails. After the death of John Arkell Abraham, the mill passed to his nephews Thomas, Alfred and Clement. In 1927 a stock was replaced and the fantail repaired. The mill last worked commercially in 1934 and was purchased for £3,400 by W H Simmonds. The steam-driven machinery was sold and the associated outbuildings decayed and were eventually demolished.<ref name=Book5/> The mill was subsequently purchased by Essex County Council in the late 1930s,<ref name=Neale /> and was listed in 1955<ref name=EH/>
On 22 June 2004, the Upminster Windmill Preservation Trust were granted a 35-year lease on the mill.<ref name=Lease>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On 18 January 2007, the windmill suffered damage in extremely high winds. The stock sustained damage as did the sail, but there was little other damage to the mill.<ref name=Gale>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Two new sails were fitted by Vincent Pargeter in August 2008.<ref name=Newsails>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
DescriptionEdit
The mill has a four-storey smock on a single-storey brick base. There is a stage at first-floor level. It has a boat-shaped cap with a gallery, winded by a six-bladed fantail. Four Patent sails are carried on a cast-iron windshaft. The mill drives four pairs of millstones by wind. The mill is Template:Convert in height to the top of the cap.<ref name=Book2>Template:Cite book</ref>
BaseEdit
The brick base is Template:Convert across the flats and Template:Convert high. The brickwork is Template:Convert thick at ground level, diminishing to Template:Convert at the top.<ref name=Book2/>
SmockEdit
The four-storey smock has cant posts of Template:Convert by Template:Convert section, Template:Convert long. the sills are Template:Convert by Template:Convert in section, Template:Convert long. The spout floor is Template:Convert across the flats, the stone floor is Template:Convert across the flats and the top of the smock tower is Template:Convert diameter at the curb. The main floor beams are Template:Convert square at all levels except the dust floor. The main transoms are Template:Convert by Template:Convert in section at all levels.<ref name=Book2/>
Cap and fantailEdit
The boat-shaped cap is Template:Convert by Template:Convert in plan and Template:Convert high. The main sheer beams are Template:Convert square, on Template:Convert centres, with the weatherbeam of Template:Convert by Template:Convert section at the centre and Template:Convert square at the ends. The cap is thought to be the work of the millwright William Bear of Ballingdon<ref name=Book2/> and is unusual in having an external gallery.<ref name=Neale /> The fantail consists of six wooden vanes set at right-angles to the sails, and has the year 1799 carved on the horizontal wooden beam beneath it.<ref name="upminster mill" />
Sails and windshaftEdit
The octagonal cast-iron windshaft has two square sections to take a head wheel and tail wheel as was its intended purpose in a post mill, and was moved to Upminster from a post mill near Maldon in 1899 to replace one broken during a storm.<ref name="upminster mill" /> It carries a Template:Convert composite brake wheel with eight cast-iron arms and six wooden cants. The brake wheel has 78 cogs. The neck bearing of the windshaft is a roller bearing, fitted after the mill ceased working commercially.<ref name=Book2/>
Originally Upminster windmill had canvas sails, but the sails on the mill when it ceased working commercially were four double patent sails.<ref name="upminster mill" /> They were carried on two stocks Template:Convert long, Template:Convert square at the centre, tapering to Template:Convert by Template:Convert at the ends. The sails were Template:Convert in span, and tapered from Template:Convert wide at the heel to Template:Convert at the tip. Each sail had twelve bays with three shutters per bay, giving a total of 288 shutters, each carved with a number in Roman numerals to indicate its location. The weather on the sails was 23° at the heel and almost 0° at the tip.<ref name=Book2/>
MachineryEdit
The upright shaft is wooden, in two sections for reasons noted above. It is twelve sided, Template:Convert across the flats and Template:Convert long in total. The wallower is of compass arm construction, Template:Convert in diameter with 43 cogs. At the bottom of the upright shaft, the Template:Convert compass arm great spur wheel has 126 cogs. It drives four pairs of underdrift millstones via stone nuts with 24 cogs.<ref name=Book2/>
The millstones are three pairs of French Burr stones and one pair of Peak stones. Two pairs of the French Burr stones are Template:Convert in diameter, and the other two pairs of millstones are Template:Convert in diameter.<ref name=Book2/>
Steam engineEdit
The steam engine was located in a brick building built against the north-east side of the windmill, and drove two pairs of millstones, a centrifugal governor, and a sack hoist. The steam-driven millstones were located on two levels and driven by a Template:Convert shaft of Template:Convert length, those on the upper floor being driven by a cast-iron bevel wheel with wooden cog inserts. It was also able to work various dressing machines in the windmill, but not the wind-driven stones. There is some difference over the exact type of engine, it being variously described as a grasshopper engine built by Napiers,<ref name=Book2/> and a Cornish boiler by Davey Paxman & Co.<ref name="upminster mill" /> Both sources agree that the engine had formerly been used in a Thames steamboat. The steam engine itself was removed in 1940 and taken to South West Essex Technical College in Walthamstow, while the building and remaining contents were removed in 1960, with two of the millstones remaining at the windmill entrance.<ref name="upminster mill" />
MillersEdit
- James Nokes 1803–1838
- Thomas Nokes 1838–1849
- Thomas Abraham 1857–1882
- John Arkell Abraham 1882–1912
- Thomas, Alfred and Clement Abraham 1912–1934
References for above:-<ref name="upminster mill" /><ref name=Book5 />
LocationEdit
The mill is located in a small open space maintained by Havering Council, known as Windmill Field<ref name=Haver>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> on St Mary's Lane. The nearest tube stations are Upminster Bridge tube station and Upminster station. Views from the top of the windmill include Canary Wharf and the transmitter at Crystal Palace.<ref name=Up>Upminster Windmill Information leaflet</ref>