Eastbridge Windpump is 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 type ...

at the

Museum of East Anglian Life The Food Museum, formerly the Museum of East Anglian Life, is a museum in Stowmarket, Suffolk, England, which specialises in presenting the agricultural history of East Anglia through a mixture of exhibits and living history demonstrations. His ...

Stowmarket Stowmarket ( ) is a market town in Suffolk, England,OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A2 edition. Publishing Date:2008. on the busy A14 road (Great Britain), A14 trunk ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

which has been restored to working order.

History

''Eastbridge Windpump'' was probably built in the mid nineteenth century by Robert Martin, the

Beccles Beccles ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . The town is shown on the milestone as from London via the A145 and A12 roads, north-east of London as the crow fli ...

millwright A millwright is a craftsperson or skilled tradesperson who installs, dismantles, maintains, repairs, reassembles, and moves machinery in factories, power plants, and construction sites. The term ''millwright'' (also known as ''industrial mecha ...

. It originally stood at Minsmere Level,

Eastbridge Eastbridge is a village in the English county of Suffolk. It is located approximately north of Leiston, from the North Sea in the parish of Theberton, immediately south of the Minsmere RSPB reserve. It borders the Minsmere River which cuts thro ...

Leiston Leiston ( ) is an English town in the East Suffolk non-metropolitan district of Suffolk, near Saxmundham and Aldeburgh, about from the North Sea coast, north-east of Ipswich and north-east of London. The town had a population of 5,508 at the ...

(). In the early 1920s, millwright Dan England of

Ludham Ludham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, in the Norfolk Broads, at the end of a dyke leading to Womack Water and flowing into the River Thurne. It lies to the East of Ludham Bridge, which is on the River Ant. It cov ...

reinforced the mill by bolting the frame from a nearby smock mill (), which had collapsed, over the weatherboarding. It worked by wind until 1940. After the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

, an iron windpump was erected nearby to take over from Eastbridge Windpump. On 19 February 1977, Eastbridge Windpump collapsed. The remains were dismantled by members of Suffolk Mills Group in July 1977 and later incorporated into the rebuilt mill at the Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket. The restoration work was done by Jameson Marshall Ltd.

Description

''Eastbridge windpump'' is a high smock mill on a brick base of a few courses. It has a boat-shaped cap and is winded by a ''fantail''. The four ''Patent sails'' are carried on a cast-iron ''windshaft''. They span . The cast-iron ''brake wheel'' drives a cast-iron ''wallower'' carried on a cast-iron ''upright shaft''. A cast-iron ''crown wheel'' drives a three-throw plunger pump, which has cylinders square.

Public access

''Eastbridge Windpump'' is open to the public and may be viewed externally during normal opening times of the Museum of East Anglian Life.

References

External links

Suffolk Mills Group
webpage on Eastbridge Windpump. {{Windmills in England Windmills in Suffolk Smock mills in England Windmills completed in 1979 Suffolk Coastal Stowmarket Tourist attractions in Suffolk Museums in Suffolk Octagonal buildings in the United Kingdom