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| | History of the greens Windmill in Nottingham | | | | Monday, May 12, 2008 (10:07 AM) | |
Just a bit of infomation about the greens windmill that i went to and made a video that i have put on my page or it will be soon.
1800
A poor harvest of corn in England, combined with the difficulties of importing grain due to the Napoleonic Wars, puts up the price of grain. The people of Nottingham, unable to afford bread, riot.
August - Notwithstanding that the last day of this month was a Sunday, it was marked as the commencement of a serious riot. A great increase in the price of provisions, more especially of bread, had roused the vindictive spirit of the poorer classes to an almost ungovernable pitch. They began late in the evening, by breaking the windows of a baker in Millstone Lane, and in the morning proceeded, with an increase of numbers and renewed impetuosity, to treat others of the same trade in the same unwelcome manner. Granaries were broken into at the canal wharfs, and it was really distressing to see with what famine-impelled eagerness many a mother bore away corn in her apron to feed her offspring.
It is possible that the baker referred to is a Mr Green who has a bakery near the Market Square and who has grain stored by the Nottingham Canal. His bakery is attacked and he pleads with the Mayor for assistance. Mr Green's son, George, is seven years old. He will become one of the greatest scientists of his time, a mathematician whose work is known and used the world over today. But before then he must help his father by working in the bakery.
1807
Mr Green buys a plot of land in the village of Sneinton on which he builds his windmill. A small wooden post mill which already occupies the site is not included in the sale and it is moved a few hundred yards further up Windmill Lane. Mr Green's mill is the most powerful and up-to-date of the twenty or so windmills in and around Nottingham.
1817
Mr Green builds a fine house next to the mill and the family
move out of the noisome overcrowding of the town.
1828
The year in which George Green produces his first - and most remarkable - scientific paper. A visitor to the mill describes the mill at work:
'. . . I ascertained some facts relative to the economy of a wind-mill. His sails have a radius of twelve yards and they revolve twenty five times a minute, or more than a mile at the extremities. This great velocity carries round the stones , which are sixteen feet in circumference, 162 times in a minute, and they grind a load of ten sacks of wheat in two or three hours. The sails are placed at an angle in the shaft, and then in union are placed exactly in the wind's point, but the quantity of cloth is varied inversely as the force of the wind. I went through this fine mill, and really felt terrified at the centrifugal force of such heavy masses as the stones, the peripheries of which were carried round with a determined velocity of forty miles an hour. Of course, none but particular kinds of stone will bear such a momentum, and the smallest fracture or inequality occasions them to separate with destructive consequences.'
1829
Old Mr Green dies, leaving the mill and other property to George, by now a fairly wealthy man. Two years later, during the Reform Bill riots, an angry mob attacks the mill. George defends his property by firing his musket from the mill whilst his eldest daughter Jane passes the ammunition.
1833
George Green lets out his mill and becomes a student at Caius College, Cambridge, where he continues his studies. He becomes a Fellow of his college and writes scientific papers on such subjects as wave motion, the behaviour of light, crystal structure and the elasticity of materials.
1841
George Green's health fails him and he dies in Sneinton. He is buried in the churchyard of St Stephen's, close by his windmill.
1844
The mill is still producing flour as it is advertised in the Nottingham Mercury:
'To let and may be entered upon in November next. That excellent Smock windmill situate at Snenton, Near Nottingham (built by the late Mr Green) with granaries, stabling for eight horses, hay chamber, miller's house and tenement adjoining, spacious garden, large yard etc. now in the occupancy of Mr Fletcher.'
1860s
A photograph of the mill and Mill House c.1860 shows the mill to still be working. The following year the census records one William Oakland as the miller. But the mill has become uneconomic when faced with competition from the new steam powered roller mills and is soon to come to the end of its working life. The mill is abandoned and the sails removed. William Oakland moves to a post mill nearby on Windmill Lane, the last windmill to operate in Nottingham.
1900s
The fantail frame at the back of the cap crashes through the roof of the mill foreman's cottage, destroying - it is said - a grand piano. The wooden gallery rots away and the boards covering the cap begin to fall away as the nails rust. But a mill tower is not without its uses and it is possibly used as a dovecote or pigeon loft.
1919
Clara Green, George's last surviving child, dies and the mill is bought by Oliver Hind, a local solicitor. Four years later he has the cap covered in copper to keep out the weather. The mill machinery and stones are still in the mill. The mill is let to H Gell and Co who use the ground floor and first floor to manufacture furniture polish and boot polish. A lot of these materials are stored in the mill.
1947
On the 10th July the mill catches fire. The lower floors are full of wax and polish and with the mill tower acting as a chimney the blaze rapidly takes hold in the brisk wind. Only the brick tower survives, a few charred beams still spanning the interior. The mill is abandoned once again.
1974
Responding to a rumour that the mill might be demolished, staff at Nottingham University start a fund to preserve the tower as a monument to George Green whose reputation as a mathematical genius has been growing. Five years later the Fund buy the mill and present it to the City of Nottingham and restoration starts.
1981
With new floors, doors and windows in place, the new cap is hoisted onto the top of the tower by a crane.
1984
The restoration is placed in the hands of professional millwrights to bring the mill into working order. A science centre is built around the mill yard to tell the story of George Green and his mill.
1985
The mill and centre are officially opened to the public though there is still much work to be done on the mill.
1986
In June the sails are finally hoisted into place though it is not until 2nd December that the sails turn and flour is produced in Green's Mill for the first time since the 1860s.
1993
photo: Nottingham University
On the Bicentenary of his birth a plaque in honour of George Green is dedicated in Westminster Abbey. In the top corner of the stone is carved a windmill.
| | | 70 Views | 4  Thumbs Up | 2 Comments |  |
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| | Back to the normal boring monday again | | | Monday, March 10, 2008 (5:23 PM)
(I'm feeling crappy) | | After having last Monday off work and being able to do what i liked i was not that much in the mood to go to work today as most of my days there are quite boring but todays was the most boring one i have had in a while. It did not start good by having to ride my scooter as it was raining with quite strong winds (but not as bad as other parts of the UK got).
Most of the time when i am at work i work by myself that is quite boring but i get used to it and give me time to think about things or sometime i might just sing to myself and things like that. today though i had to work in a room with 2 other people that does not bother me and they where both young and quite good looking women that most of the time is a bit of a bonus. The downside of it was that the 2 women i was work with were both Polish (We have quite a lot of Polish who work at my place as temp staff) and were talking to each other nearly all the time in polish that i can not understand or speak at all so after about 9 hours or so it does start to make you feel like you are going mad and drive you up the wall.
I would like to point out that i have got nothing against polish people or infact any foreign people and dont like to get involved with people that do as there are a few that i have worked with that have been very friendly and told me stuff about there culture as thats something i always find intresting and if i was one of these people who hated foreigner i would have to hate my sister in law who is turkish and my 2 Nisces who were both born and live near me and that is something i could never do
Hopfully tomorrow i will be back to working on my own being bored but not going mad
Hope you are all having a great day. Dan :) | | | | 104 Views | 2 Thumbs Up | 1 Comment | |
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| | It looks nice outside today | | | Monday, March 3, 2008 (5:48 AM)
(I'm feeling cheerful) | | Where i live near Nottingham it looks quite sunny and clear outside and would of been an ideal day to do a video bike ride. But my head is saying dont do it as i still feel a bit hung over from last night with doing my first LV chatroom i thought i would do one as its my birthday but some people may find it hard to believe that i am quite a shy person as someone told me once when i worked with them they said "at first i did not think you talked then soon i wished that you didnt" they did mean it in a nice and funny way. so i went to my brothers pub for a few pints of Dutch courage then had some bottles in the house that i drank while doing it but at the end of the day i dont think i needed to as everyone was nice who came in my room and we had a bit of fun as well and you never know i may do another one before 3rd March 2009
i am off out now to do some shopping then watch a film wish all Mondays could be like this but i will be going on the train not my scooter. hope you all had a good day and thanks to the people that came in my room :) | | | | 84 Views | 6 Thumbs Up | 3 Comments | |
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| | been and gone and no luck again | | | Friday, February 15, 2008 (6:08 AM)
(I'm feeling optimistic) | | | yesterday (Feb 14th) was a bit of a mix day. As usual i did not get any Valintines cards in the post just a phone bill instead but i did get a lot of nice comments on my message block and a few gifts as well. later that day i went to get weighed at my slimming club that i go to. Most the time i go on a wenesday but i had Ice Hockey in Nottingham to watch that i wish i did not after watching it LOL. I was not that sure how i had done this week so i was quite pleased to find out i had lost 2 lbs and with not many thing happening this weekend i am hoping next week i will have another loss. so it was not to much of a bad day and with a long weekend off work with only working 4 day a week hopefully it will get even better. | | | | 118 Views | 8 Thumbs Up | 5 Comments | |
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