Amongst the many mills for sale
here are some new to the
market:
Hele Watermill,
nr Ilfracombe, Devon and its
tearoom, is well known to west
country
holidaymakers.
www.helecornmill.com.
Everybody must know
Jack Windmill at
Clayton
which is partially converted to
living quarters and partners the
white
Jill Windmill.
Duncton Mill
Roundhouse (of the original
Duncton Mill) sits adjacent to
Jack, connected via double doors
it is currently used as a
workshop. Jack played a
significant part in the Michael
Caine film,
The Black
Windmill.
For sale thru Savills.
Lovedays
Mill,
Painswick, Gloucs., A stone
built, converted, large, former
water driven textile mil.
The Old Flax Mill
Nr Coleraine, County Londonderry
BT51.
Paston Windmill
at Stow in
Norfolk A fine
tower mill in the village.
http://www.stowmill.co.uk/history.html
Finally,
Alvechurch,
on Weatheroak Hill nr Birmingham
– a converted tower mill
surmounted with a 360degree
viewing room. Google each mill
on the internet for histories
and/or sales brochures.
Meanwhile, these
windmills are all facing
problems and need a great deal
of help:
Argos
Hill Mill
at Mayfield in East Sussex is a
grade II* listed
post mill
now in need of urgent repairs.
A fund raising
campaign hopes to raise £100K in
2011. To enable shoring up the
mill with a temporary steel
framework, while the main
structural timbers can be
repaired or replaced.
Keep up to date
with the Friends of Argos Hill
Mill on
Twitter @ArgosHillMill
and have your say
on the Mills Archive Trust’s
Blogsite on:
www.millsarchive.org
Burgh le Marsh
Windmill,
High Street,
Burgh le Marsh, Lincolnshire.
The Skegness Standard reports
that
“Sub-zero
temperatures have caused a burst
pipe at Burgh Le Marsh Windmill,
which has drowned out its cafe
and toilet facilities and left
it hanging in the balance
between being saved and being
written off forever.”
Sutton Windmill,
Britain’s tallest, towering over
the Norfolk Broads, is losing
timber from its cap and is in a
worrying condition. North
Norfolk District Council (NNDC)
experts say the 79.5ft-tall mill
is not a safety risk and the
mill’s owners warn they cannot
afford the six-figure sum needed
fully to restore the
18th-century mill - but both
have pledged to work together in
a bid to preserve an important
piece of Norfolk’s heritage.
Thorpeness (aka
Aldringham)
Mill
was sold by Suffolk County
Council for £72,100 (AP
£150,000); now councillors are
being questioned over this
apparent “fire sale”. New
owners say it was in a very poor
state but pledge to restore to
its former glory.
UpminsterMill
in Essex
first opened in
1803, was selected as the
building to represent Havering
on the series of London Borough
Olympic badges. The Upminster
Windmill Preservation Trust is
now working with Havering Sixth
Form College to create an
archive of historic pictures and
people’s memories of the
windmill. It’s hoped to create
more interest in the mill
locally and raise the necessary
funds through a Lottery Grant to
repair its deteriorating
structure. Most of these mills
have been brought to our
attention by William Hill who
emails monthly bulletins but
here is another gem, this time
from Windmill World, another
source of mill news items:
A video is now
available which shows
Moving
Robertson's Windmill
at Colonial Williamsburg, USA.
The little white
post mill was found to be
inoperable due to the height of
the many surrounding trees and
so it was moved in August, 2010,
to a new site. The film has
good narration. And finally,
House Mill,
London.
William Hill writes to correct
some of the press release
whoopsies faithfully printed in
our last newsletter:
“The HLF has awarded us around
£250,000 as development funds,
and then our next bid, for
delivery funds, will be for
£2.6million; we have a lot of
work, surveys etc to do and
commission before then. The
current House Mill was used for
grinding grain for the
production of grain for gin, and
not flour. We hope that what is
exciting about this project, is
that it is projected that the
four water wheels, together with
contemporary external turbines,
will be used to generate
hydroelectricity, which will be
excellent both as an education
tool and an income stream, to
ensure long-term sustainability
of the buildings here.”
The Editor
gratefully acknowledges all
contributors and sources.