National Mills Weekend At Heage Windmill
The National mills weekend, organised by the Society for Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), was supported by Heage windmill, who welcomed large numbers of visitors on both Saturday and Sunday. They were shown how this 220-year-old Mill works, still producing fine stone ground flour and some people actually saw the process in operation. One of these was Aimee Bedward from Birmingham! It was her birthday in March and her friend Phil Sutton treated Aimee - a dedicated mill enthusiast – to the ‘Miller for the Day’ experience. This enable her to have a day’s training and activity at our wonderful Heage Windmill including milling some grain. It was touch and go though, because on Friday the wind strength was only 5mph, nowhere near enough to mill with. However, overnight the wind veered from ENE to SSW and increased in strength to a breezy 14mph so she was given the OK to come.
Under the supervision and guidance of millers Anthony Sharp and Tim Castledine Aimee first started the sails turning, to the delight of watching visitors. The sails turned for about an hour requiring her to make frequent adjustments in a variable wind and then it was decided to introduce Aimee to the process of milling and she successfully milled 20Kg of excellent quality Wholemeal Flour. Later she was in the cap (at the top) of the mill to close the Mill down, or as we say 'put the old lady to bed'. Aimee said she had had ‘a simply amazing day’.
In addition, the mill was the base for a rally of some 27 cars from the Veteran Car Club, whose members owned cars dating from the 1930’s and earlier. The oldest car was a 1924 Vauxhall 30-98 Tourer whilst the ‘newest’ was a Riley 12/4, dating from 1937! The cars arrived and departed throughout the day and attracted much attention from mill visitors.
In a corner of the site the Nunsfield Radio Club set up a mobile radio station and made a total of 114 contact with places as far away as eastern Russia and the United States. They also managed to contact 14 similar clubs, who were based at other wind and water mills in this country, although radio air conditions did not favour local contacts.
The windmill will be open during 2017 (11-00am to 4-00pm) every weekend from April 1st until the end of October.
Admission Charges for 2017
Adults £4-00 Concessions, including Gold Cards £3-50, Children (5-16) £2-00 (parents can buy one and get one free for children in the same age group) Children under 5 are free.
Organised Adult parties of up to 10 people -£50-00. For each additional person £5-00 is payable).
School Parties and other children's groups Standard charge of £40.00 for up to 28 people (contact Lynn on 01773 715177)
See web site for more information www.heagewindmill.org.uk
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