Bocking Windmill

Essex is home to many historical landmarks. Bocking Windmill, a listed ancient monument and perhaps one of the lesser known monuments, is 300 years old and rich in history.

The post mill features a two-story roundhouse and has been in Church Street Bocking since 1721. It was moved 200 yards up the hill to its present site in 1829 by John English Tabor. Although, sadly, not a working windmill anymore, much of the original machinery is still in place.

Today, the Windmill is now run by Braintree District Council with support from a volunteer group of residents, who run open days and look after the building.

Optimally illuminating such a structure which is the focal point of the local parish required both a well thought out design and luminaires which provided the required illumination alongside being adequately protected against the adverse local weather conditions, and to that end, the Aztec Coastal Floodlight was identified as being the ideal product.

It is known that airborne sea salt prevalent within the air can be blown well inland, and with the sea salt being hygroscopic, it can create a corrosive electrolyte within the atmosphere, where corrosion of metal components within the lighting fittings can take place.

The Aztec Coastal floodlight, therefore, offers the ideal solution, which due to its robust construction from pressure die-cast aluminium which has undergone electrophoresis treatment followed by the application of a special powder coating to prevent corrosion. The front has a tempered glass diffuser to prevent yellowing, secured by stainless steel screws to provide an ingress protection of IP66 and fitted with a high-quality Grade 316 Stainless Steel bracket, powder coated, for mounting within harsh environments.

Making such claims with regard to the fittings level of protection is easy, however having substantive corrosion testing evidence within artificial atmospheres, is not. Testing was conducted in accordance with BS EN ISO 9227:2017 with regard to the Natural Salt Spray (NSS) process for the testing of metals and alloys, and coatings on metallic materials.

Available with a symmetrical beam distribution, with or without a photocell, across a range of wattages from 50W through to 300W, whilst being resilient to salt-based environments, makes Aztec Coastal ideally suited for this type of application.

Whilst creating the optimum lighting solution was the initial specified requirement for illuminating Bocking Windmill, having an installation with quality coastal type floodlights, will mean an extended operational life for the equipment, thereby removing the need to replace corroded fittings in the short to medium term.