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Windmills (or Wind Engines)
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In 1988 my late Brother-In-Law Robert
moved to Suffolk and we visited him a
few times each year. There is not much
steam railway engine action to
photograph in Suffolk. I therefore
became interested in Windmills as
industrial relicts (not just for their
landscape beauty). I bought an AA road
atlas that actually marked on all
Windmills. As we drove around we stopped
at various mills for some photography.
My brother lives in the Home Counties
another hot bed of windmills. In fact he
now lives in a village with a windmill
at the end of his road, which is a
fortunate co-incidence.
"Windmills" are a generic
term as these are really wind engines of
the pre-steam age used to mill corn,
pump water or drive various other
machinery. There are three main types,
the POST mill, the SMOCK mill and the
TOWER mill with variations in regional
style and colour. Not all have 4 sails,
some have 2, 6 or 8. early post mills
were turned manually into the wind, but
later mills turn automatically using a
fantail.
I have here over 120 photos of working,
preserved or ruined mills, many of which
were not very well catalogued. Most are
shot on Velvia slide film with a
polarizing filter to get that super
saturated effect. The majority are 35mm
but a few are on 120 slide film. Modern
HDR digital image processing has greatly
improved the detail of matt black or
white towers and white sails.
Some of these images are nearly 20
years old and Mills are easilly damaged
in storms so they may not appear today
as in these photos. Also some new
restoration projects are also underway
so new mills may appear.
Many thanks to everyone who has helped
me identify the mills, this has saved me
a great deal of detective work. I will
gradually make links to further
information sources and Mills
restoration groups.
160 photos, 1 video | 828 views
items are from between 11 Sep 2008 & 28 Feb 2009.