sustained damage as did the sail, but there was little other damage to the mill. Two new sails were fitted by Vincent Pargeter in August 2008. Description The mill has a four-storey smock on a single-storey brick base. There is a stage at first-floor level. It has a boat-shaped cap with a gallery, winded by a six-bladed fantail. Four Patent sails are carried on a cast-iron windshaft. The mill drives four pairs of millstones by wind. The mill is in height to the top of the cap. Base The brick base is across the flats and high. The brickwork is thick at ground level, diminishing to at the top. Smock The four-storey smock has cant posts of by section, long. the sills are by in section, long. The spout floor is across the flats, the stone floor is across the flats and the top of the smock tower is diameter at the curb. The main floor beams are square at all levels except the dust floor. The main transoms are by in section at all levels. Cap and fantail The boat-shaped cap is by in plan and high. The main sheer beams are square, on centres, with the weatherbeam of by section at the centre and square at the ends. The cap is thought to be the work of the millwright William Bear of Ballingdon and is unusual in having an external gallery. The fantail consists of six wooden vanes set at right-angles to the sails, and has the year 1799 carved on the horizontal wooden beam beneath it. Sails and windshaft The octagonal cast-iron windshaft has two square sections to take a Head Wheel and Tail Wheel as was its intended purpose in a post mill, and was moved to Upminster from a post mill near Maldon in 1899 to replace one broken during a storm. It carries a diameter composite Brake Wheel with eight cast-iron arms and six wooden cants. The Brake Wheel has 78 cogs. The neck bearing of the windshaft is a roller bearing, fitted after the mill ceased working commercially. Originally Upminster windmall had canvas sails, but the sails on the mill when it ceased working commercially were four double Patent sails. They were carried on two stocks long, square at the centre, tapering to by at the ends. The sails were in span, and tapered from wide at the heel to at the tip.