Beauty and Heckington windmill

click photo to enlarge
It's good that Heckington windmill, the last remaining 8-sail windmill, is undergoing a restoration, and that the buildings around it are being refurbished and remodelled to make the site into a place that can better welcome visitors. It's good too that the rear of the premises will no longer be the eyesore that it has been for many years. And, it's good that the sails that were succumbing to rot have been replaced and are as they should be. All this is a testament to the hard work and selfless effort of the volunteers who have made, and continue to make, it happen.

However, as I view the mill from the A17 when I'm driving past, or when I stop off in Heckington and have a closer view of the building an unfortunate yet inescapable thought always occurs to me - Heckington mill is undoubtedly the least visually pleasing English windmill that I know.

I recently saw, on successive days, Heckington windmill then Boston's Maud Foster windmill. The temporal proximity of my viewings brought home the agreeable elegance of the latter (probably my favourite windmill) and the ungainliness of Heckington. Where Maud Foster has warm, subtly coloured brickwork contrasting with the white of sails, cap, gallery, windows etc and visually interesting subsidiary buildings, Heckington has cold, stark black and white and seems to tower in an awkward way over a disconnected jumble of sheds. I'm sure the redevelopment will improve the latter aspect. However, it is Heckington's main distinguishing feature that I find most displeasing - eight sails. It is simply too many, makes the mill look top heavy and gives the building something of the character of a whirring desk fan - even when it's stationary! By contrast, the five sails of Maud Foster seem to be the ideal number offering visual interest, pleasing angles and less visual weight.  Four sails are very common on English windmills and usually look fine, six sails are less common and that number is beginning to lose the coherence that characterises fewer sails. Five sails are also less frequently seen than four but that number is definitely - to my mind - the optimum: eight is simply far too many!

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 20mm (30mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/250 sec
ISO:100
Exposure Compensation: -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Heckington eight-sail windmill

click photo to enlarge
Three types of traditional windmill are to be found in England. The oldest is the post-mill, a relatively light-weight, mainly wooden structure with no fan-tail, that is turned into the wind with a tiller beam. One at Outwood, Surrey, dates from 1665, though many examples no longer standing were built before that date. Next comes the smock mill, so called because its tapered, boarded, octagonal tower resembles a nineteenth century countryman's smock. That at Lacey Green, was built in 1650. The final development was the tower mill, and this is the type most commonly seen today.

Tower mills were developed in the eighteenth century and have a round or octagonal brick or stone tower similar to a lighthouse. The wooden top revolved so that the sails always pointed into the wind. This was achieved by another eighteenth century development - the fantail - that worked much like the broad end of a weather vane, but had the added advantage of small blades that could be used to power a hoist. The movement of the main sails was transmitted to millstones through a series of shafts and cogs. In 1919 there were 350 working windmills: today there are about 24, though many more stand with motionless sails and silent machinery, or have been converted into houses. An even greater number of sail-less towers can be seen.

Today's photographs show the tower mill at Heckington, Lincolnshire. It was built in 1830 as a five-sailed windmill driving three pairs of stones, and milled grain for 60 years until the cap and sails were destroyed by wind in 1890. However, in 1891 an enterprising man bought the eight-sailed top of the defunct Tuxford windmill and matched it up with the remaining stump at Heckington. He set the mill to work again and it continued until 1946, also powering a circular saw-mill! Since that time it has seen restoration by enthusiasts, and in recent years has been open to the public.

You might wonder why my images don't show the full splendour of those eight sails. Well, the fact is that behind the windmill (to windward) is a an absolute eye-sore of stored bales of plastic and cloth, gas cylinders, derelict buildings and parked lorries. Not the most photogenic foreground for this venerable and unique structure!

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Top Image
Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 22mm (44mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/250
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Bottom Image
Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 14mm (28mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/400
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On