The Windmill

The now long gone windmill at Tilty is first recorded on a 1588 survey and valuation of the manor of Tilty. This document in Essex Record Office (ref D/DWV M197). This valuation was done for Henry Maynard (Private Secretary to William Cecil, Lord Burghley under queen Elizabeth the first), Who bought the Tilty estate from Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk for the sum of £5000. When the mill was originally built is not yet clear but the estate Maynard bought was effectively the estate of the dissolved Tilty Abbey (cistercian) so if the mill was originally built by or for the Abbey is to be proven. (research ongoing, any help much appreciated). The next documentary evidence of the wind mill is from the beautiful Agas map of 1594 (right). This map (once thought lost but recently re-discoved in a garage and now in Essex record office (ref D/DMg P25), clearly shows a open trestle post mill standing in windmill field. The next reference i have is another estate map in ERO (ref D/DMg P1/1) dated 1730,see top right. Again this clearly shows the open trestle post mill. The final reference to the windmill i have so far found is the will of Charles, Lord Viscount Maynard in 1775 which mentions Joseph Hawes (late John Perry) as miller at Tilty windmill AND watermill. Later maps around the turn of the century do not show a windmill at Tilty. I am trying to establish why when at a time when milling was very profitable a post mill (albeit at least 200 years old), disappears. Perhaps it was too old and was pulled down, but also remember that the present Tilty watermill was probably being built around the end of the 18th century and may have taken over the main milling for the area. However many old mills were taken down and refurbished and erected again in new locations, could this have happened to Tilty Mill? Surely the prime candidate for this would be Broxted mill which was built around 1800ish and is about a mile from the Tilty site. Mills were valuable at this time of Napoleonic scares and although i have no evidence yet to prove my theory i continue to try to link the two. Link to Broxted windmill pictures http://www.broxted.org/pages/hist/pict_bd03_hist.asp