Not used at Holgate Windmill

In most mills the brake is usually used as a parking brake but the brake can be used to slow the sails down if used carefully.

Ten feet diameter oak wheel enclosing the windshaft, has cast iron cogs round rim, transmits power from windshaft to wallower, also carries elm brake bands to keep sails still when mill is stopped; brake itself is a large oak lever engaged by chain down to ground level outside

The bran contains most of the goodness of the grain and is highly nutritious with a high fibre content

The cap’s main purpose to keep the weather out. It rotates to face the sails into wind (Luffing). There are many different types of cap: ogee (as fitted to Holgate Windmill) upturned boat shaped cap, onion, pent, conical, thatched, etc

Wooden ducts to bring grain by gravity from dust floor to stone floor, then to bring the milled meal (unsifted flour) from stone floor to meal floor.

Careful preservation , restoration and protection of buildings

Cast iron framework which holds the sails; also holds the spider which helps to open and close the shutters

words

Cast iron ring on top of the wall on which the cap slides; guide wheels keep it on track; cogs on its outside mesh with teeth on the fantail mechanism to move the cap round. The curb ring is a circle of wood or metal attached to the mill. There are 3 types of curb: Live (with rollers) / Shot (with rollers and skids) / Dead (with just skids – as fitted to Holgate Windmill)

Not used at Holgate Windmill

Vertical shaft with wallower at top, made of pine at dust floor level then of cast iron on lower levels, turns the great spur wheel

15hp motor installed in 2011 as replacement for one used from 1930-1933, used for milling on ‘electric stones’ when there’s no wind to use the wind powered stones

The fantail is a smaller “windmill” attached to the rear of the cap. When the wind direction changes, it catches the wind side-on and begins to rotate. Through a set of gears, that rotation slowly turns the cap around on its curb until the main sails are facing into the wind again. This automatic winding system reduces the need for people to manually turn the cap, and helps keep the mill operating efficiently (and more safely) as wind direction shifts. Not all windmills have a fantail—some are wound by hand or by other mechanisms.

It is usual for both bed and runner stones to be dressed in the same pattern. The dressing in England is usually Harps cut into the stones traditionally using mill bills and thrifts

This operates thus: The sails speed up, the weights on the governor move outwards raising a collar which adjusts the tentering to suit via a brayer and a bridge-tree. Note. Holgate Windmill has no brayers.

Old bins would have stored several tons of grain ready for milling with regular stirring to distribute moisture; our new bins are not used for grain storage.

The great spur wheel is mounted on the upright shaft on the stone floor to drive the stone nuts. Usually the great spur wheel (made of wood or metal) has an odd number of teeth or cogs (Holgate Windmill has 103 teeth) as do the stone nuts (29 cogs) this is to reduce the incidents of wear.

This is often used now as a general term for whatever is to be milled

The hopper is held in place by the horse frame

Cast iron pillars and beams on meal floor to support millstones and other machinery

These have fine stitching lines which in modern times are cut into the surface using diamond discs and an electric drill

The chute usually has an inspection hole for checking the quality and fineness of the flour, a slide stop for cutting off the flow of flour and a magnet to remove any metal swarf dust from the flour

The runner stone is driven by the quant (overdriven) or damsel (underdriven). There are maFour feet six inch diameter stones made of joined pieces of quartz (French burr stone) or a solid chunk of granite (Derbyshire peak stone); each pair has a runner stone (rotating) and a  bed stone (fixed) between which the grain is cut; meal moves to outer edge and falls to meal floor through chute under floorny different types of millstones. Holgate Windmill uses French burr and peak stones.  Four feet six inch diameter stones made of joined pieces of quartz (French burr stone) or a solid chunk of granite (Derbyshire peak stone); each pair has a runner stone (rotating) and a  bed stone (fixed) between which the grain is cut; meal moves to outer edge and falls to meal floor through chute under floor

Millwrights need to be skilled in carpentry metalwork, understand the principles of engineering (especially gearing), and have knowledge of the blacksmith’s work. He/She also needs to have a good head for heights and be able to swim!

Patent sails are favoured in much of Europe but can also be found further abroad. They are the most user friendly system being almost fully automatic, depending on wind strength.

The building called a buck and is turned either by the use of a substantial beam emanating from the rear of the structure or a fantail. The first written evidence of a post mill in England is at Weedley in the parish of south cave (North Yorkshire) in 1185.

The process of reversing the deterioration of a building

The rynd carries the weight of the runner stone and fits into the mace head. The rynd’s on Holgate Windmill have a removable bearing on their bearing point.

The method of raising sacks of grain up the mill by wind power or manually through sack hoist doors in the mill floors. The sack hoist was stolen (or sold?) perhaps as a replacement for another mill in the 1970’s

Initially the wooden sail frames were small with interwoven sackcloth (later roped in front of the frame) to catch the wind. The main types of sail are: Common, roller reefed, shuttered (spring tensioned) and patent sails as fitted to Holgate Windmill. There are though many more types especially in use abroad. Five double shuttered (patent) sails, each 35 feet long, 10 feet wide, consisting of 20 shutters on each side of a central beam (whip) of laminated larch

The shoe contains a metal gate for control of the flow of grain. The grain is agitated through the gate via an extended horn on the front of the shoe being knocked by the quant or damsel

Smock mills often have brick bases and are usually 8 or 12-sided, but not always. Almost all the preserved smock mills in England are fitted with a fantail.

Often called the “Catwalk” they are fitted to the mill encircling it and sometimes quite a distance from the ground on taller mills.

The stocks can be up to 40 feet long. Holgate uses John Smeatons design where the sails are tenoned into the sailback doing away with the stocks altogether.

The stone has any of its raised highpoints erased using a proof staff (iron) and then a paint staff (tri – laminate wood)

The gear that drives the over driven runner stone. The stone nuts in Holgate Windmill are iron framed with wooden cogs. If overdriven the stone nut is mounted on the quant just below the glut-box (top bearing). If under driven it is mounted on the stone spindle

Iron rods, levers and cog wheels to open and close the shutters via the spider on the cross.

Automatic tentering works very well using metal but is difficult to achieve using wood.

Mechanism for regulating gap between runner stone and bed stone to control fineness/coarseness of meal.

The tower mill has a rotating cap that carries the sails. This is to facilitate keeping the sails facing into the wind. This can be done manually using a chain (making use of gearing) or a capstan using wooden beams from the shear frames. And also automatically by using the fantail.

Wallow in this instance means to surge unrestrained. Large cast iron cog wheel at top of vertical drive shaft, moves power down the mill.

Bread that is made from the whole grain which has been ground to a fine texture

John Smeaton invented the iron windshaft the type fitted to Holgate Windmill

Mills without fantails: Post, Tower and Smock mills could be turned into wind by the use of gearing operated manually by a chain hung down the back of the mill; occasionally from within the mill. They could also be turned by the use of a tail pole and braces with a capstan (much favoured by the Dutch).

Windmills are machines developed to carry out work by capturing and controlling the power of the wind. They are used for a huge variety of tasks, including milling grain—rice, maize, and animal feed (beans and peas, etc.) irrigation, drainage, and sawing timber. They were also used to produce arsenic, gypsum, snuff, gunpowder, flint, chalk, oil, and many more.

Hollow iron shaft tilted 10 degrees from horizontal, lies inside cap, is attached to cross at outer end, goes through centre of brakewheel and turns it