Post mill, Nutley

A wind-powered corn mill in the historic county of Sussex, England.

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A small post mill located on the edge of Ashdown Forest, Nutley Mill was restored by a band of skilled volunteers between 1968 and 1972 and has since been maintained in full working order by the Uckfield & District Preservation Society. The mill is one of five remaining open-trestle post mills in the country. The centre post of the mill has been dated by dendrochronology (tree-ring dating). It was shown to have begun life as an acorn in 1410 and was eventually felled in the mid-16th century.

The mill is clad with brown weatherboarding and a simple tailpole and talthur are employed to turn the mill body into wind. One pair of sails (known in Sussex as 'sweeps') are of the spring-shuttered type and the other pair are common sails, manually spread with canvas. In operation, each sail must be stopped at its lowest point to allow the shutter tension to be adjusted or the canvas to be spread across the sail frame. The sails are mounted on stocks at the head of a cast-iron windshaft which carries both head and tail wheels. Both wheels are of the wooden clasp-arm type. The millstones at the rear (tail) of the mill are of Derbyshire Peak and the head stones are of French Burr. A flour dressing machine, also on the millstone floor, is driven via a layshaft by the tail wheel.

Full details

Power source	Wind
Mill type	Post mill
Mill function	Corn mill
Archive ID	2640
Location	Nutley
Historic county	Sussex
Country	England, United Kingdom
NGR	TQ 451 291
Latitude/longitude	51.04276700, 0.06840500

Location

Gallery

• Breast frame
• Stone nut detail
• Interior view showing the brake wheel mounted on the cast-iron windshaft
• Frank Gregory by the tailpole
• Underneath the millstones, a centrifugal governor controls the fineness of the flour being produced
• Morris dancers
• The mill after restoration, with sweeps turning
• Frank Gregory spreads the canvas over one of the common sweeps
• The mill under repair, circa 1970
• 

References

• Anthony Bryan, Mills Research Group Database
• Windmill World

Related shop products

• Nutley windmill
• Nutley windmill restoration
• Portrait of a windmill
• Sussex windmills and their restoration : a 1970s perspective
• Windmills of Sussex

Related publications in the library

• Nutley windmill
• Nutley windmill
• Nutley windmill restoration
• Nutley windmill restoration
• Nutley windmill restoration
• Nutley windmill restoration appeal
• Portrait of a windmill
• Seven Sussex windmills
• Standing windmills of East Sussex
• Sussex windmills and their restoration : a 1970s perspective
• Wind and water mills in and around Uckfield
• Windmills in the Wealden District
• Windmills of Sussex

 

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