 Stembridge Mill is a tower mill, a type of windmill which consists of a brick or stone tower, on top of which sits a roof or cap which can be turned to bring the sails into the wind.The advantage of the tower mill over the earlier post mill is that it is not necessary to turn the whole mill ("body", "buck") with all its machinery into the wind; this allows more space for the machinery and storage.In the earliest tower mills the cap was turned into the wind with a long tail-pole which stretched to the ground at the back of the mill.