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Alford Five-Sailed Windmill, Lincolnshire
Built as a seven-storeyed windmill in 1837 by the well-known local millwright John Oxley the mill belonged to a group of four windmills and is the sole survivor today.
Alford Windmill is a seven-storeyed Lincolnshire type tower windmill with a stage - featuring a slender, tapering brick tower, tarred to keep the moisture out, covered with a white onion-shaped (ogee) cap with fan-stage, huge fantail, and white sails. She has five patent-shutter sails and originally three, later on four pair of stones (two pair of grey or peak stones (cut from rock found in the Peak District) and two French "quartzite" stones). The seven storeys are called: ground floor (contains a hurst frame with the engine-driven (from the outside) forth pair of (grey) stones), storage floor, spout (stage) floor (also called meal floor), stones floor (with the original three pairs of stones (one grey pair, two French pairs)), lower bin floor, upper bin floor (with the sack hoist), dust or cap floor (providing access to the inside of the cap)). The mill provides a flywheel at the mill's base connected by pulley to a town gas driven engine in the adjacent shed. This engine makes the mill independent of wind if it is insufficient to drive the sailcross. In its heyday Alford Mill was capable of grinding 4 to 5 tonnes of corn a day.
Alford Five-Sailed Windmill, Lincolnshire
Built as a seven-storeyed windmill in 1837 by the well-known local millwright John Oxley the mill belonged to a group of four windmills and is the sole survivor today.
Alford Windmill is a seven-storeyed Lincolnshire type tower windmill with a stage - featuring a slender, tapering brick tower, tarred to keep the moisture out, covered with a white onion-shaped (ogee) cap with fan-stage, huge fantail, and white sails. She has five patent-shutter sails and originally three, later on four pair of stones (two pair of grey or peak stones (cut from rock found in the Peak District) and two French "quartzite" stones). The seven storeys are called: ground floor (contains a hurst frame with the engine-driven (from the outside) forth pair of (grey) stones), storage floor, spout (stage) floor (also called meal floor), stones floor (with the original three pairs of stones (one grey pair, two French pairs)), lower bin floor, upper bin floor (with the sack hoist), dust or cap floor (providing access to the inside of the cap)). The mill provides a flywheel at the mill's base connected by pulley to a town gas driven engine in the adjacent shed. This engine makes the mill independent of wind if it is insufficient to drive the sailcross. In its heyday Alford Mill was capable of grinding 4 to 5 tonnes of corn a day.