Doncaster columnist shares interesting history surrounding post mills

Post mills first appeared in England about 800 years ago.

They are so called because the whole body of the mill pivots on a large upright post.

This lovely old postcard shows the post mill at Amcotts in 1904 when the Lockwood family were the millers.

One of the sails is broken off and it is likely that this mill it was demolished quite early in the 20th Century.

The message on the back of the postcard reads: “Received yours. Will be mooring up soon.”

This would suggest that someone was coming into Amcotts by boat.

A scene depicting the end of an era as Garthorpe’s Tower Mill, bereft of its sails, is demolished with explosives in the 1920s. Unfortunately many of our lovely old windmills have been destroyed over the years but there is some consolation in seeing a few living on as private residences.

Keadby Mill may possibly have been the tallest in the Isle of Axholme standing six storeys high. It proudly displays four sails, fantail and ogee cap.

The mill was on the Trent bank roughly in the vicinity of present day ‘Mill House’.It was ran by the Coggans in the 1850s, a family which also ran the mill at West Butterwick.

In the 1930s Keadby mill was in the hands of miller, George Wilson when it was then operated by both wind and steam.

Lincolnshire had over 500 mills in the 19th Century and the Isle of Axholme certainly made a strong contribution to this number.

Most villages had more than one and six once surrounded Epworth, four of which you can still see.

Owston Ferry had four and the two pictured here, on this E.L. Scriven’s postcard stood on the east side of North Street. James Stephenson’s mill, on the right, was in use up to the 1930s but the other one ended its life earlier.