South Ockendon Mill
| South Ockendon Mill | |
|
Essex | |
|---|---|
 The mill in working order c1900 | |
| Type: | Windmill |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ604831 |
| Location: | 51°31’26"N, -0°18’40"E |
| History | |
| Built 1820s | |
| Windmill | |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | Private |
South Ockendon Windmill was a smock mill at South Ockendon, Essex: it collapsed on 2 November 1977 and now its ruin, containing its machinery, is all that remains.
An octagonal mill with initial brick stages, it rose to three storeys in the traditional "smock" shape. It was unusual in that it combined two sources of power: wind and water. Most prominent visually were the four sails, but it also had a waterwheel. In its last years of operation, the mill also had a steam engine.
The mill's brick base rose two storeys, with a stage at first-floor level. The mill had two double Patent sails and two single Patent sails. The boat-shaped cap was winded by a fantail.[1]
History
South Ockendon Windmill was built in the 1820s. A date of 1829 is often quoted but the mill was marked on the Greenwoods' map of 1825. The mill was a combined mill, with a waterwheel driving a pair of millstones in the base in addition to those driven by wind. The mill may have been built with the waterwheel from new. The first reference to the waterwheel was in 1845.
In June 1853 the mill was struck by lightning.
A steam engine had been installed by 1912 and the mill ceased working in 1923.
The mill collapsed on 2 November 1977. The wreckage was taken into store at South Woodham Ferrers by Vincent Pargeter, millwright to Essex County Council.[2] A plan to restore and exhibit some of the remains in South Ockendon was shelved in 1994. The remains are still in store, available to be used if a replica of the mill is ever built, either on its original site or elsewhere.[3] In 2005, it was announced that some of the machinery was to be used in the restoration of Halvergate Windmill in Norfolk.[4]
Description
Mill
The mill had an octagonal two-storey brick base, which consisted the ground floor of the mill and a cellar. It was 26 feet 4 inches across the flats and 8 feet 4 inches high. The cellar was just under 8 feet high.[1] The mill was 58 feet high overall, and 50 feet from ground level to the top of the cap.[5]
The smock rising above the brick base was 30 feet 6 inches from sill to curb. The mill was 16 feet 2 inches in diameter at the curb externally, the cant posts being about 11 inches by 11½ inches. The stage was at first-floor level, 8 feet 4 inches above the ground.[1]
The cap was boat-shaped, similar to those found on Norfolk windmills. Winding was by an eight-bladed fantail.[1]
Sails and windshaft
It had a cast-iron windshaft carrying two double Patent sails and two single Patent sails with a span of 64 feet. The double-shuttered sails had eleven bays of three shutters, and the single-shuttered sails had nine bays of three shutters.[1]
The mill was winded by an eight-bladed fantail, with a wooden worm gear driving onto cogs of 9 inch pitch at the top of the smock.[1]
Machinery
The wooden brake wheel was of composite construction, 9 feet 2 inches diameter. It had a wooden rim and a cast-iron centre with six arms. It had been converted from clasp arm construction. The Wallower was wooden, as was the Upright Shaft. The Upright Shaft was made up of four pieces of timber. The clasp arm Great Spur Wheel was of wood. It drove three pairs of underdrift millstones, with a fourth pair being driven by the waterwheel. The wind-driven millstones were all French Burr stones, two pairs being 4 feet diameter and the third pair being of 4 feet 10 inches diameter. Little is known about the waterwheel except that it was undershot[6] and drove a single pair of millstones on the first floor of the mill, which was the same floor as the wind powered millstones.[1]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about South Ockendon Mill) |
- Windmill World webpage on South Ockendon Mill
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Farries, Kenneth (1984). Essex Windmills, Millers and Millwrights – Volume Two – A Technical Review. Edinburgh: Charles Skilton. pp. 61–65. ISBN 0-284-98637-2.
- ↑ Farries, Kenneth (1985). Essex Windmills, Millers and Millwrights – Volume Four- A Review by Parishes, F-R. Edinburgh: Charles Skilton. pp. 89–92. ISBN 0-284-98642-9.
- ↑ Yates, Susan. "South Ockendon Windmill (4)". Thurrock Local History Society. http://www.thurrock-history.org.uk/mill2.htm. Retrieved 23 July 2008.
- ↑ Norfolk Mills: Halvergate towermill
- ↑ Yates, Susan. "South Ockendon Windmill (2)". Thurrock Local History Society. http://www.thurrock-history.org.uk/mill2.htm. Retrieved 23 July 2008.
- ↑ Yates, Susan. "South Ockendon Windmill". Thurrock Local History Society. http://www.thurrock-history.org.uk/mill1.htm. Retrieved 23 July 2008.