Sails return to Saxtead Green Mill

Sails returned to Saxtead Green Mill
£250,000 English Heritage conservation secures historic Suffolk landmark

The future of a celebrated piece of Suffolk heritage will be secured this week, as English Heritage hoists a newly-constructed set of sails into place on the 18th-century Saxtead Green Post Mill near Framlingham. The reinstallation of the mill’s sails represents the culmination of a £250,000, year-long conservation project in collaboration with one of Suffolk’s last remaining specialist millwrights. 

Saxtead Green Post Mill is a striking four-sailed corn-grinding windmill in Framilingham in Suffolk. Standing in an idyllic village green, it is a rare example of a post mill, the whole body of which turns with the wind on its base. Originally constructed around 1796, it has been rebuilt three times, with cast iron machinery added in 1854. It was in use until 1947 and is maintained in working order and regularly open to visitors by English Heritage.

Over the past 12 months, English Heritage has been working with specialist local millwright Tim Whiting on a major conservation project to safeguard the mill for the future, and alongside the new set of sails and stocks, a replacement staircase has been created and repairs have been undertaken to the timber buck as well as to the fantail.

The conservation project is scheduled to be completed by the end of September 2019, and Saxtead Green Post Mill is due to reopen to the public for a special weekend on 21 -22 September, before it permanently reopens in 2020.

Photo (previous webpage) © Justin Minns 2019
Photo above © Chris Ridley - English Heritage 2019