 |
Open Day - Chailey Windmill
Chailey Windmill, said to mark the spot of the dead centre
of Sussex, is open to the public for a couple of hours every
last Sunday of the month between April and September. It’s
a smock mill – so named because the horizontally weather-boarded
sides resemble the sort of linen smock countrymen used to
wear. Like most such mills it is octagonal in shape. The mill
was built in 1834, and moved to Chailey (having first spent
some time in West Hoathly) thirty years later, the fifth mill
to be placed on the site (the first being in 1595). Look carefully
and you can work out how the mill worked – its boat-shaped
‘cap’ rotated so the sails faced into the wind.
The windmill, which no longer has any machinery inside, last
ground grain back in 1911. It has been restored twice since
then, in 1933 (after damage caused by the ‘great gale’
of 1928) and in 1954. It’s a great place to visit, not
least for its position – it offers fine views of Chailey
Commons, Ashdown Forest and the Downs. The mill has spent
all its life standing next to a beautiful ancient yew believed
to be more than 400 years old. During research for this page,
incidentally, we discovered that Sussex’s most famous
mill used to be ‘Six Sweeps’ on Kingston Hill,
which was blown down in the Great March Blizzard of 1916.
So now you know. AG |
