It is a Grade II listed tower mill with six sails and fan tail and built of local sandstone and is over two hundred years old. Standing on the brow of a hill it overlooks the village of Nether Heage like a silent sentinel.

The squat stone built tower is 24 feet in diameter and has a stone plaque by the entrance door marked “WSM 1850”, - the significance of which is not clear. The mill is built on a small mound and an entrance below could have enabled carts to back right into the building for loading and unloading.

The first indication of the mill is in an advertisement for a tradesman in the Derby Mercury of 16th June 1791,“Heage windmill is to be erected, any mason inclined to undertake the stone building to attend at the mill, all materials laid down in place.”

And soon after, in 1798:-

           “To be let – complete smock mill with fantail, two pairs of stones,
           good dressing machine – made to plans approved by Mr Wass –
           standing in good situation at Heage.”

The mill was advertised in the Derby Mercury, 1816, offering for lease in Nether Heage “ a dwelling house, a smock mill and four acres of land.” However, tower mills were commonly called smock mills in Derbyshire at that time.

There was a small stone building, built some years after the mill itself,  alongside the mill which was used as the kiln.  The roof of this later fell in and for a long time only the shell remained.  This has now been restored and turned into our Visitor Centre.  A kiln was often used to dry grain before it was ground into flour or oatmeal. One report suggested that a woman who entered the kiln to turn the corn was burnt to death when her clothes caught fire.

In 1850 the two brothers Isaac and Joseph Shaw purchased the mill, trading as millers and grocers. A photograph probably dated before 1890 shows the mill with two common and two spring sales, a black ogee cap and a fantail which had 14 slim blades. It operated in this form until February 1894 when the mill was tail winded and the cap and four sails were blown off in a violent storm.

A contemporary photograph shows a man, presumably the miller, standing on the wreckage of the sails in front of the mill and the brake wheel protrudes from the top of the tower.   

When the rebuilding commenced it was decided to replace the four sails with six patent sails, presumably to obtain more power, although in other respects the mill was externally similar. The work was carried out by George Chell, a millwright from nearby Crich where a house in that village carries a plaque bearing his name.

Technical Drawing

The wind shaft(1) and the six arm iron cross were cast by the Butterley Company  of Ripley and were  fitted out with 6 patent sails. A local carpenter, George Spendlove, of Heage, made the new Ogee cap, complete with a ball finial.

The 20’2” diameter ogee cap turns to face into the wind on an iron curb, supported on 24 cast iron wheels and is maintained centrally by 6 truck wheels running on the edge of the curb track.

The Brake wheel(2) is of wooden clasp arm construction and had 60 wooden teeth at 4 3/4” pitch. The circular wooden upright shaft(7) which is 15” diameter at the top and 17” at the bottom drives the iron wallower (45 teeth). The Great Spur Wheel(8) originally had 70 cogs at 3” pitch, in two staggered rows. The reason for this most unusual feature is not clear but whatever it was the cogs had been sawn off long ago and replaced by sections of iron teeth, bolted onto the wooden frame work, which have now disappeared.

There are two pairs of 5’0” peak mill stones(9) with conventional wooden vat etc. The stones are mounted on cast iron tentering arms(10), manually adjusted.

In the cellar below the mill there are four brick columns which were added about 1910 to strengthen the foundations of the mill, so all was well at that time and the mill continued to be in regular use until 1919, operated by Joseph and Enoch Shore, the sons of Thomas, and later, by T J (Tom) Shore. In fact worked in conjunction with the nearby water and steam mills in the valley to the west of the windmill which were under the same ownership. However, in 1919 the fan tail was severely damaged in a gale, most of the blades being lost. The damage was serious and presumably in line with economic situation of mills at that time, the mill closed down.

She (windmills are always referred to as "she") became almost derelict, drawings and photographs in the 1930’s showing her with sail bars hanging down in a totally neglected manner. An article in the Derby Evening Telegraph in 1934 reports that the mill was up for auction and includes a contemporary photograph showing that the fan tail was missing and that the sails were not complete.  Care was needed it was said when entering the mill because some of the floors were rotten. The view, taken from the nearby road, shows the adjacent Windmill Cottage and mill standing in an area completely devoid of the trees and vegetation which presently surround the site.

The mill was struck by lightning in 1961 and a photograph taken in 1967 shows only the remnants of the sails and a stub where the fan tail and its staging had been. A preservation order (Number 1 by Derbyshire County Council under the 1962 Town and Country Planning Act) was placed upon the mill by Derbyshire County Council who bought the mill for £350 and the mill was then listed "grade II*" on the 27th May 1966.

Over the next few years restoration work was carried out by the millwrights Thompsons of Alford in Lincolnshire and new floors, sails, cap and fan tail were made. New sails were hoisted on the 15th March 1972 and the fan tail was lifted into place three days later. The mill is still in the care of Derbyshire County Council and in 1993 it was necessary to replace the large wooden brake wheel, since the sails broke free in high winds, despite having no shutters, and smashed up the old gear wheel. In 1997 she was struck by lightning, fortunately without serious damage, and a lightning conductor has now been fitted. Some of the sail stocks and sheers (major support beams) had been recently replaced by Derbyshire County Council but full restoration work began in earnest in September 2000 and continued until May 2002.  The working mill finally opened to the public on 1st June 2002.

'Details mostly abstracted from 'Derbyshire Windmills - Past and Present , by Alan Gifford. Published jointly by Heage Windmill Society and the Midlands Mills Group. This book describes all 84 known Derbyshire windmills and is available, priced £7.50 plus postage, from the Windmill. Call 01773 853579'

Unfortunately during much of 2005 our six sailer only had four sails!  We found we had wood rot in two of them during the winter maintenance work and, for safety reasons, removed them. (Note that they did not form part of our recent restoration programme.)  New ones, which cost about £20 000, have been obtained and recently fitted to the mill , just in time for the start of the new season.

Fortunately a six sailer can still operate quite well with four, three or even two sails, albeit with somewhat less power.  As we start 2006 we have raised enough monies to purchase the new stocks, helped in no small measure by a contribution of £5000 from the BBC Radio Derby Charity Auction, Money Mountain, held last October.  A further grant of £8,000 has been gratefully received from the Derbyshire and Derby Economic Partnership (DDEP) and the Amber Valley Partnership which ensured we have sufficient funds for the replacement of the sails, and for other important work we are carrying out.

The new sails arrived from Boston in the middle of March and after some preparatory work were ready for lifting into position. The Crane was ordered ,and arrived on time, and so did the press – but also so did the wind! The wind was so strong that it was decided for safety reasons, to delay operations until the following day, March 31st. Although still breezy it was much less gusty than the previous day and within three hours both sails were back in place and, later in the day, the mill worked again with her full complement of six sails – just the day before we re-opened to the public.

Everyone who has contributed in any way to make all  this work possible has to be thanked – perhaps many times over. Without these  efforts the mill could so easily return to the decayed state it was in a few years ago.

On April 1st the windmill was formally opened to the public by John Tams, the well known TV Folk singer, in front of a large crowd of people, all  admiring the mill turning with her six sails in place once again.