Finchingfield Post Mill Finchingfield · Essex · England

Finchingfield Post Mill is a restored post corn mill at Duck End, Finchingfield. It is also known as Duck End Mill and Letch's Mill. The mill stands on a high mill mound overlooking the village and is widely described as the oldest windmill in Essex. It is thought to have been built around 1756, although the structure contains carved dates including 1753, 1756, 1760, 1773, and 1777. The listed building description records it as an early eighteenth-century post mill, brought from elsewhere and erected on its present mound before 1840.

The mill was built as an open-trestle post mill. A red-brick roundhouse was added in 1840, enclosing the base and providing storage space. The timber-framed, weatherboarded body carried four spring sails and was turned to the wind by a tailpole. It drove one pair of stones directly from the brake wheel. One of the mill's most important technical features was its all-wooden windshaft, a rare survival that remained with the mill to the end of its working life and survives dismantled. In the 1950s it was replaced by a cast-iron windshaft from Gainsford End Mill at Toppesfield.

The mill was insured for £50 in 1790 and £100 in 1794. It continued working until about 1890. Twentieth-century photographs record it disused and derelict with sails, undergoing repair in the 1930s, and later preserved with dummy sails and restored fabric. It is now owned by Essex County Council and has been maintained as a public heritage windmill. The Grade II listing protects a small post mill with red-brick roundhouse, weatherboarded timber body, tailpole winding, and rare surviving historic components. Its present role is as a restored village landmark and representative survival of Essex post-mill construction.