Mountnessing: Windmill

Essex Review

Extract from No. 185 Volume XLVII (January 1938)

Mountnessing Mill

By Edward S Knights

On the bluff of a hill next to the great high road,

Stands the ancient mill with sails now still,

Lonely and quiet since the last heavy load

Went lumbering down the hill.

Song of the reaper and Harvest Home,

Mill and Harvest Lord,

Working together on Essex loam,

But time has reaped and stored.

Weather worn timbers of grey lichened base.

Post and Roundhouse, Windshaft and Sails,

Time in passing has marked the place,

And the wind drives past and wails.

Song of the reaper and Harvest Home,

Mill and Harvest Lord,

Working together on Essex loam,

But time has reaped and stored.

Old creaking timbers and a gaping side,

Where doorless hinges catch the nettle tops,

And loosened boards the winds deride,

Which still know golden crops.

Song of the reaper and Harvest Home,

Mill and Harvest Lord,

Working together on Essex loam,

But time has reaped and stored.