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Base-only survival recorded
The former post mill site is recorded as surviving by its base only.
Site overview
Orsett Post Mill was a post corn mill at Orsett. The site is recorded in Essex windmill lists from the seventeenth century and appears on later maps before disappearing by the end of the nineteenth century. Specialist mill records identify the survival as base only, with the timber post mill body gone.
The mill is distinct from the nearby Baker Street smock mill at Orsett, which survives in restored form. Orsett Post Mill now survives as a base-only site, preserving the location of an earlier wind-powered corn mill within the Orsett landscape.
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
Orsett Post Mill was a former post mill at Orsett. Essex windmill lists record a post mill at Orsett from 1678, with later appearances on maps in 1724, 1777, and 1805. The mill was recorded until 1887 and had gone by 1893.
The site is recorded separately from Baker Street Mill, the nearby Orsett smock mill. The post mill's present survival is described as base only, indicating that the working timber body, trestle, sails, and machinery have been lost. The surviving base remains are the physical trace of the earlier post mill.
Orsett Post Mill therefore represents a long-lived windmill site rather than a complete surviving structure. Its record preserves the continuity of wind-powered milling at Orsett from at least the later seventeenth century into the nineteenth century, with the present survival reduced to the remains of the base.
Timeline
1678
Post mill recorded at Orsett
A post mill at Orsett was recorded in 1678.
1724–1805
Post mill mapped in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
The Orsett post mill appeared on maps in 1724, 1777, and 1805.
1887–1893
Post mill disappeared
The Orsett post mill was recorded in 1887 and had gone by 1893.
Sources and records
Windmill World site entry
Mills Archive site record
List of windmills in Essex
Mills Archive site record
List of windmills in Essex