The Post Mill

This building, which now houses Vycombe Arts, used to be part of a windmill, the section which survives today was called a post mill. To work efficiently a windmill's sails have to face square into the wind, so it must be possible to face the sails in any direction. In the earliest windmills, known as Post Mills, the whole mill body, with sails and milling machinery, turned to face the wind on a massive central oak post. Between 1780 and 1830 there was a boom in windmill construction and only the cap which carries the sails revolved to face into the wind.

Occasionally when a post mill was demolished, the mill body was taken down and re-used for another purpose. In this case you can see the last such detached post mill body to survive in the country. If came from a mill built in 1796 about half a mile away and was moved whole, minus its roof, around 1860 and converted into a dovecote. In 1995 it was re-sited for use as a craft workshop. As a result of its unusual history, the timber frame is very little altered, and thus of great historical importance - even the original plaster lining is still in place!

If you would like to read more about the Mills of Suffolk click here.