Drinkstone Windmills are a pair of

windmill A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications, in some ...

s at Drinkstone, Suffolk, England. They consist a

post mill The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. Its defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. All p ...

and a

smock mill The smock mill is a type of windmill that consists of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded, thatched, or shingled tower, usually with six or eight sides. It is topped with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind. This typ ...

. The post mill is Grade I listed and the smock mill is Grade II* listed. The mills were known as Clover's Mills as they were always worked by the Clover family.

Post mill

Drinkstone Post Mill was built as an open trestle post mill. A brick and flint roundhouse was added in 1830. The mill was originally powered by Common sails. Spring sails were fitted during the nineteenth century and the mill was finally worked with one pair of spring and one pair of common sails. The mill has a wooden windshaft with a cast iron poll end, which was fitted by the millwright C Sillitoe of

Long Melford Long Melford, colloquially and historically also referred to as Melford, is a large village and civil parish in the Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is on Suffolk's border with Essex, which is marked by the River Stour, ...

. In the 1920s, an air brake was fitted to the sails, but the scheme was not successful and was abandoned Winding was by tailpole until the 1940s, when the

fantail Fantails are small insectivorous songbirds of the genus ''Rhipidura'' in the family Rhipiduridae, native to Australasia, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Most of the species are about long, specialist aerial feeders, and named as " ...

carriage from Barley Green Mill,

Stradbroke Stradbroke ( ) is an English village in the Mid Suffolk district of the county of Suffolk. The ''Census'' of 2011 gave the parish a population of 1,408, with an estimate of 1,513 in 2018. Heritage The village was listed in the Domesday Book ...

was fitted. This was worked by a winch to start with and the fantail from Thurston Mill was fitted during World War Two. The fantail from

Woolpit Woolpit ( ) is a village in the English county of Suffolk, midway between the towns of Bury St. Edmunds and Stowmarket. In 2011 Woolpit parish had a population of 1,995. It is notable for the 12th-century legend of the green children of Woolpi ...

Mill was fitted in 1963. The frame of the mill shows its age, there being no side girts. The body has been extended in the breast and tail, and the mill may have been reconstructed so that the original breast of the mill is now the tail. The mill has two pairs of millstones. The structure is currently on the

Heritage at Risk Register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for acti ...

.English Heritage - Drinkstone Post Mill
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Post mill history

Drinkstone Post Mill was built in 1689, making it the oldest windmill in Suffolk. Samuel Clover was given the post mill, horse mill and mill house by his father (Samuel Sr) in 1775. The mill passed to his son (Samuel Jr, b1752) and thence through a succession of Clovers to Wilfred, who took the mill on the death of his father Daniel in 1947. On 28 February 1949 the mill was tailwinded, damaging the sails and fantail. The mill became derelict until Mr Clover restored it in 1962 and put her back to work

Smock mill

Drinkstone Smock Mill was built in 1780 on a horse mill which had been in existence in 1689. The mill is a two-storey smock mill on a single-storey base, which originally housed a horse mill. The mill has a pepperpot cap which was originally winded by a chain and wheel, a fantail being added towards the end of her working life. The mill was last worked with a pair of Common sails and a pair of Spring sails. The windshaft was a wooden one. The

millstones Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, for grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs: a convex stationary base known as the ''bedstone'' and ...

were supported on a hurst frame, an arrangement usually found in a

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...

Millers

*Samuel Clover Sr – 1775 *Samuel Clover 1775 – *Samuel Clover Jr *John Clover *Daniel Clover *Mrs Clover – 1900 *Daniel Clover 1900 – 1947 *Wilfred Clover 1947 – 1949, 1962 – Reference for above:-

Culture and media

''Drinkstone post mill'' was featured in the

Dad's Army ''Dad's Army'' is a British television sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, and originally broadcast on BBC1 from 31 July 1968 to 13 November 1977. It ran fo ...

episode " Don't Forget the Diver" in which

Lance Corporal Jones Lance Corporal Jack Jones is a fictional Home Guard platoon lance corporal and veteran of the British Empire, first portrayed by Clive Dunn in the BBC television sitcom ''Dad's Army''. His catchphrases are "Don't panic!", "Permission to speak, ...

went round on the sails of the mill and was thrown off into a pond.

External links

Windmill World
webpage on Drinkstone post mill.

webpage on Drinkstone smock mill.

References

{{Windmills in England Windmills in Suffolk Mid Suffolk District Post mills in the United Kingdom Smock mills in England Windmills completed in 1689 Windmills completed in 1780 1689 establishments in England