Background

The post mill is Grade I listed and the smock mill Grade II listed. The mills were worked by successive generations of the Clover family from 1775.

The post mill was built in 1689, making it the oldest windmill in Suffolk, with some claim to perhaps having the oldest timbers in a windmill in England.

In 1949 the mill was badly damaged and became derelict until Wilfred Clover restored it in 1962. By this time, although still working, it was a hobby rather than a full commercial enterprise.

The Post Mill project

In 1997, the mills passed out of Clover ownership. In 2002, the sails of the post mill, which were rotting, were removed for restoration. The new owners set about continuing Wilfred Clover’s  restoration with a very ambitious project, There was extensive fund raising,including a grant from English Heritage, who put the mill on the Heritage at risk Register.

£135,000 was contributed by English Heritage, £5,000 by Suffolk County Council and a very impressive £6,500 was raised at Open Weekends and special events.

Work started on the post mill in May 2005, using some of the best building conservation people in the country – millwrights Vincent Pargeter and Neil Medcalf; architect Tim Buxbaum; engineer Brian Morton; main contractors R & J Hogg; mill experts Mark Barnard and Chris Hullcoop; English Heritage surveyor Trudi Hughes and architectural historian Leigh Alston to name but some of the team. Between them they came up with a solution for pulling together the 16th century frame of the mill without losing more of the original timbers than necessary and repairing the windshaft which carries the sails which had rotted through the centre.

Unfortunately, work on the post mill has come to a stop, as the owners had to re-locate.  The mill house is presently rented out and the tenants are working hard to restore the lands but it remains to be seen when the post mill restoration will continue. There is an excellent photographic and video record of the restoration in  the History archive.

Post mill 1978

Smock mill 2008

Post mill 2005

Smock mill & post mill