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Introduction
Early Days
Mr Waud's New Mill
Journey through the working mill
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Early Days
Location: York
The local historian Geoff Hodgson has provided that there was no windmill on the site of Holgate Windmill prior to the existing structure. It is important though, to consider the impact of the earlier mills in the local area. The early post mills can be traced back to 1366 on the nearby Severus Hill and Acomb Mill just off Manor Drive with various maps and drawings indicating a further 18 mills surrounding York at one time or another. Holgate being the “last of a circle” the title of the late David Lodge’s excellent unpublished book to which we are indebted. David will be sadly missed.
It is not known who invented post windmills or when they first arrived on the scene. It is possible that returning Crusaders, having seen vertically vaned windmills of the middle east, transposed them to the post mill design, but I rather think it was derived from a seafaring background, ably assisted by a watermiller’s gearing knowledge, or a combination of all three. Certainly you can see the seed being sown.
The earliest known reference to a post mill is at Weedley near Skidby, Yorkshire, dated probably 1185, the only other one in contention is that of a windmill being erected on Dean Herbert’s lands between 1182 and 1203.
These early post mills were usually quite small, with one or possibly tow pairs of stones, but were certainly not fragile, often outliving the tower mills built to supersede them. The earliest preserved windmills are all post mills; Pitstone (1627), Bourn (1636), Outwood (1665) etc.; apart from the majestic and unusual Chesterton Tower Mill of 1632.
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