On Monday morning I drove east. Through Tickhill and Bawtry then on to Gainsborough. After Gainsborough, I travelled through the village of Corringham and that's when I spotted an old mill standing in a field of bright yellow rapeseed.
There was nowhere to stop and I was on a fairly busy "A" road with a big white lorry behind me. It would have been dangerous to pull in and so I just kept on driving, knowing that I was leaving a fine photo opportunity behind me.
However, returning from Louth on Tuesday afternoon, I prepared to stop and three hundred yards before reaching the old mill, I turned onto a side road and parked Clint safely in a field entrance.
I was feeling pretty weary as I hobbled along the grass verge until I could find a way into the field. Passing motorists may have been thinking, "Is he an escaped lunatic?" but I didn't care.
East Mill, Corringham was used as a corn mill through most of the nineteenth century but I could not find out exactly when it was built. By 1905, the four sails were broken beyond repair and no more flour was ever produced there. Even in 1885, the mill was described on maps as "Old Windmill"
Similar disused mills may well have been demolished long ago but East Mill survives partly because it had a preservation order placed upon it and it is now an officially listed building. The blue and the yellow remind me of the flag of Ukraine. Long may East Mill continue, at its lonely location north of the A631.
The mill looks very well built and has withstood the ultimate test of time.
ReplyDeleteIt is a miracle that it wasn't demolished long ago.
DeleteI am surprised someone hasn't tarted it up to live in.
ReplyDeleteApparetly it has housed barn owls for several decades.
DeleteReminds me of a sort of timeless silo.
ReplyDeleteIf it could speak what tales it could tell.
DeleteI like the old mill very much. And your photos with the brilliant blue and yellow background.
ReplyDeleteRapeseed is Canola by another name, I read somewhere the name was changed when it was GM modified to produce Canola Oil because people might not buy Rapeseed Oil with the rape as part of the name. I can't verify the truth of that I just vaguey remember reading it years ago. I do know that my digestive system dislikes Canola Oil.
Here the term "canola oil" has never caught on. In supermarkets it is still "rapeseed oil".
DeleteIt's the time of year where many fields show my favourite colour - yellow -, and nothing sets it off better than such a brilliant blue sky.
ReplyDeleteI must have missed something in your previous posts; why were you hobbling along? Did you have a fall during one of your walks from Louth, or were you just feeling the strain on your feet and legs after the good long walks you had been taking?
I had just finished my second walk - forty minutes before and I was stiffening up, feeling a bit sore. That's all.
DeleteThank you for making the effort to photo it. Mills are a thing of the past, usually with sails on, was this mill that type?
ReplyDeleteYes it was. For a hundred years it served local arable farms.
DeleteI love it when nature and old buildings make a beautiful vista. It would be nice to see the windmill have sails again. Even if they didn't turn.
ReplyDeleteIf it still had sails it might sail away into the mists of history.
DeleteI'm glad you were able to go back and get some good photos. I've done that too, in Florida -- either pulled over quickly (if I was able) or gone back another time to take a picture. (Obviously not of old windmills, though!)
ReplyDeleteMy eyes can act as a camera. Many times I have spotted visual moments that remain with me though I didn't have a camera at the ready.
DeleteYou don't seem to have "escaped." Great photo, that would make a delightful holiday home.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to be floating in a sea of rapeseed flowers. I like that fact that it hasn't been turned into a home.
DeleteThis mill is rather small but at that time transportation limited how far grain could be taken for processing.
ReplyDeleteOf course the scale of traditional arable farming would have been very small in comparison with Canadian prairie lands.
DeleteWhen I was younger, I would have cared what people thought of me. The older and wiser me realizes that they don't know me and at best, I'm a five second brief at the evening dinner table and thus I just do what I want to do and let the public wonder.
ReplyDeleteSelf-consciousness never disappears entirely but at my age (69) it never shackles me.
DeleteOh, those fields of yellow are wonderful to see! Thanks for stopping back to get the photos for us, Neil!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome Ellen. I was very happy to share those pictures.
DeleteIt does seem a lonely location for a mill, so at some time there must have been access for the corn to be delivered and transported away after milling. Sadly, even though it looks well built and has a preservation order on it, it will probably be left to crumble away.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently binge watching an old series called Restoration Man. Its about an architect, (George Clarke), who follows the lives of people in Britain who are in the middle of restoring historically and architecturally significant buildings. As soon as I saw the photo of your little mill, I thought it would make a great little cottage for someone.
ReplyDelete