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Photograph - Post Mill, Essex
  • Post Mill, Essex
    de Mare, Eric, born 1910 - died 2002
  • Enlarge image

Post Mill, Essex

  • Object:

    Photograph

  • Place of origin:

    Essex (England), England (photographed)

  • Date:

    probably 1960s or 1970s (photographed)

  • Artist/Maker:

    de Mare, Eric, born 1910 - died 2002 (photographer)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Gelatin silver print

  • Museum number:

    PH.24-1984

  • Gallery location:

    Prints & Drawings Study Room, level H, case X, shelf 971, box A

  • Image in copyright

Post mills like this one once dotted the landscape of Essex and East Anglia. Their innovative design allowed the mill to be turned to face into the wind whenever the wind's direction changed.

Eric de Mare, a trained architect and one of the most acclaimed architectural photographers in Britain, devoted much of his career to recording Britain's neglected industrial heritage. His photographs of bridges, factories, and warehouses demonstrated that functional design was not an invention of the twentieth century, but had a long and honourable tradition in British architecture.

Physical description

A photograph of a post mill seen from the side, with two ladders leading up to it. The background is empty; the mill appears to be at the top of a hill.

Place of Origin

Essex (England), England (photographed)

Date

probably 1960s or 1970s (photographed)

Artist/maker

de Mare, Eric, born 1910 - died 2002 (photographer)

Materials and Techniques

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

Height: 291 mm, Width: 290 mm

Object history note

Post mills such as the one depicted here were once a common sight in Essex and East Anglia; they were designed to be turned to face into the wind whenever its direction changed. This may be the post mill at Bocking, which was built in 1721 and still exists.

Historical context note

Eric de Mare, a trained architect, was one of the most acclaimed British architectural photographers of the 1960s and 1970s. From the late 1940s, he received a series of commissions to document Britain's relatively neglected industrial heritage; much of his oeuvre consists of striking images of bridges, factories, and warehouses. In 1958 he collaborated with J M Richards on the book The Functional Tradition in Early Industrial Buildings, which demonstrated that functional design had not been an invention of the 1930s, but had a long tradition in British architecture.

Descriptive line

Photograph, 'Post Mill, Essex', by Eric de Mare

Techniques

Black-and-white photography

Subjects depicted

Essex; Mills

Categories

Photographs

Collection code

PDP

Qr_O120228
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