1681
Essington mill recorded
A windmill at Essington was recorded by 1681.
Site overview
Essington Mill was a wind-powered post mill used for corn milling. It is a rare Staffordshire example of a post mill survival, with the roundhouse and main post remaining in derelict condition. The mill is recorded at Bognop Road, Essington, and was present by the late seventeenth century or early eighteenth century, with later mapped and photographic evidence continuing into the twentieth century.
A 1920s photograph has been identified as almost certainly showing Essington Windmill. By the early twenty-first century the surviving remains consisted of the base and central post. The full working chronology, ownership, and final operating date are not fully established, but the site is significant within the Staffordshire windmill record because it preserves fabric from a post mill rather than only a tower shell.
Map
Map markers and directions links are provided for location reference only and do not indicate public access or permission to enter a site.
No site photograph is currently available. Images will be added as field visits are carried out.
History
Essington Mill was a post mill used for corn milling. The mill is associated with Bognop Road, Essington, and is recorded as Staffordshire's only post-mill survival in later local material. Its history reaches back at least to the early modern period, with a mill at Essington identified from 1681 and later appearing in eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century windmill lists.
The surviving structure is not a complete mill. Instead, the roundhouse and main post remain in a derelict state. This makes the site different from the tower-mill survivals elsewhere in Staffordshire, because the principal survival relates to the central support system of a post mill.
A photograph from the 1920s has been identified as almost certainly showing Essington Windmill. Later documentation records the ruins of the old windmill and confirms that only the base and central post remained. Details of the original buck, sails, machinery, millstones, and final commercial working date remain uncertain.
The site is therefore best represented as a rare remnant of a post mill, with survival concentrated in the roundhouse and main post rather than in a complete working structure.
Timeline
1775
Post mill shown in later windmill lists
Essington Mill was recorded as a post mill in later county windmill listings.
1920–1929
Mill photographed
A 1920s photograph has been identified as almost certainly showing Essington Windmill.
2006
Derelict remains documented
The surviving remains consisted of the roundhouse and main post in derelict condition.
Sources and records
Windmill World entry: Essington windmill
Mills Archive database entry: Post mill, Essington
Staffordshire Past Track entry: Essington Windmill
List of windmills in Staffordshire
Mills Archive database entry: Post mill, Essington
Staffordshire Past Track entry: Essington Windmill
List of windmills in Staffordshire