
The trestle of a
post mill
The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. Its defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. All p ...
is the arrangement of the ''main post'', ''crosstrees'' and ''quarterbars'' that form the substructure of this type of
windmill
A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications, in so ...
. It may or may not be surrounded by a ''
roundhouse''. Post mills without a roundhouse are known as ''open trestle post mills''.

A trestle mill is a variety of
smock mill
The smock mill is a type of windmill that consists of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded, thatched, or shingled tower, usually with six or eight sides. It is topped with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind. This type ...
, usually without weatherboards, formerly used for drainage in the
Norfolk Broads
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North ...
. Examples can be found at
Horning
Horning is an ancient village and civil parishes in England, parish in the English county of Norfolk.
It covers an area of 11 km2 and had a population of 1,033 in the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 census. Horning parish lies on the nort ...
,
Ludham
Ludham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, in the Norfolk Broads, at the end of a dyke leading to Womack Water and flowing into the River Thurne. It lies to the East of Ludham Bridge, which is on the River Ant.
It ...
and
St Olaves.
A well preserved example of a timber crosstree, from the trestle of a medieval windmill, was excavated by archaeologists at
Humberstone Humberstone may refer to:
Place-names
* Humberstone, Leicestershire, now part of the City of Leicester, England
** Humberstone & Hamilton, an electoral ward and administrative division of the City of Leicester, comprising in part the suburb Humbe ...
, near Leicester, in 2007.
References
;Sources
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{{Renewable-energy-stub
Post mills
Smock mills