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Post Mill, Essex

Photograph
1956 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

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.


Object details

Category
Object type
TitlePost Mill, Essex (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Gelatin silver print
Brief description
Photograph, 'Post Mill, Essex', by Eric de Mare, 1956. The mill in the photograph is Mountnessing Mill, near Ingatestone, Essex.
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.
Dimensions
  • Height: 291mm
  • Width: 290mm
Object history
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
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.
Subject depicted
Place depicted
Summary
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.
Collection
Accession number
PH.24-1984

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Record createdJanuary 5, 2006
Record URL
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