Aythorpe Roding Windmill Aythorpe Roding · Essex · England

Aythorpe Roding Windmill is a large post corn mill at Aythorpe Roding. An earlier mill stood on the site by 1615, and the present structure was probably built in 1779, a date recorded by an inscription on a timber in the mill. It is the largest surviving post mill in Essex, with a timber-framed weatherboarded buck mounted on an oak post and a red-brick roundhouse below.

The mill was insured for £50 in 1798 and for £140 in 1805. In its earlier form it had an open trestle, still shown on the 1846 tithe map. In 1860 it was advertised in the Chelmsford Chronicle for sale to be pulled down and removed. Instead, it survived and was substantially modernised, probably between 1860 and 1868. The common sails were replaced by patent sails, the wooden windshaft by a cast-iron windshaft, and the original head-and-tail stone layout by a breast-stone arrangement. A roundhouse was added to enclose the trestle and provide storage, and a fantail replaced the manual tailpole, allowing the mill to turn automatically to face the wind.

By 1868 the mill had its fantail, and by 1890 a steam engine drove an additional pair of millstones in the roundhouse. Known millers and operators included Joshua Wright, Joseph Knight, Stephen Crossingham, E. P. Bennett, James Webster, Charles Large, Thomas Belsham, and Ernest and John Belsham. The mill continued working until 1937. It was leased by Essex County Council in 1940, preserving it after the end of its commercial life.

Restoration by millwright Vincent Pargeter was completed in 1982. The mill ground its first grain after restoration on 3 March 1982 and was officially opened to the public by Ken Farries on 30 April 1983. The listed structure preserves important post-mill fabric, including the rotating buck, oak post, roundhouse, cast-iron windshaft, patent sails, fantail arrangement, and two pairs of millstones. The sails were later removed in 2017. Aythorpe Roding Windmill remains a major Essex post mill survival and is protected as a Grade II* listed building.