Ramsey Windmill

Ramsey Windmill is a post mill built in 1842. It is a rare and significant example of a working windmill, possessing unique machinery and a fascinating history. The roundhouse is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond, with a buck timber frame and weatherboard cladding, topped by fabric roofs. The roundhouse is two stories high, and the buck three stories. The roundhouse has casement windows on each floor facing southwest and northeast, and a boarded door on each floor facing southeast. The buck, oriented northwest to catch the wind, has sixteen-light sash windows on each side of the meal floor and stone floor, a small casement in the tail gable, and a boarded door in the tail. The post and trestle are supported by the unusually tall roundhouse, which has a slight inward slope. The sails are of a double-shuttered patent type, now without their shutters, and are the original working set. They were formerly operated by chains connected to a purchase wheel set into the tail wall of the buck. The mill was previously winded by a six-vaned fan positioned above the roof, which drove via shafts and gears to a worm-wheel connected to the quaker-bars beneath the body; the fan is now missing, but the remaining drive mechanism is present and is unique in Britain. The buck is lightly constructed, using pine for some components with oak reserved for the primary timbers. The mill contained three pairs of stones; two pairs were over-driven in the head, and one under-driven in the tail, offset to the left. Most of the internal machinery is cast iron, with the exception of the wooden clasp-arm brake-wheel, which had two cog-rings, the inner ring being used to power now-missing dressing machinery. An original drive for a jog-scry is also present. It is believed the mill was relocated from Woodbridge, Suffolk, in 1842 by Henry Collins, and was first owned by Robert Brooks, remaining in the Brooks family for most of its operational life. It was sold to R.M. Scott of Ipswich in 1937 and ceased working in 1939. By 1974, the mill was derelict and close to collapse. Volunteers from the Suffolk Mills Group and the owner, Michael Organ, undertook repairs; these involved inserting steel girders, tie rods, and brackets to prevent further movement, replacing much of the timberwork and cladding, without attempting to correct existing deflections or distortions.