HEAGE WINDMILL
1798 - 2008
Heage Windmill wins prestigious conservation award
In 1996, a group of dedicated individuals in conjunction with Derbyshire County Council, formed the "Heage Windmill Society" (a registered charitable trust). They recognised that, unless further action was taken to ensure the continued care and attention in the near future, this important stone windmill could be lost forever.
The Society is largely made up of local and interested people who had the desire to restore the windmill to working order and to provide opportunities for the public to visit the mill.
In 1997 joint applications were made to National Lottery Heritage Memorial Fund, and to English Heritage, for grants to be made to enable the mill to be brought back to working order. English Heritage awarded a grant of almost £40,000 to restore the masonry of the tower and soon after it was announced that the mill had been the subject of a lottery grant of £163,855. A further grant of £92,000 was received from renewable energy promoting organisation, WREN
Legal problems and bad weather then held up the start of the restoration work until September 2000 and work continued, when weather permitted, until May of 2002.
The mill finally opened to the public on June 1st 2002 and had a very successful first year with many thousands of visitors coming to enjoy the spectacle of seeing the windmill working again after more than 80 years of lying idle.
The Mill opens 2008 on Good Friday 21st March with formal opening at 12 -00 noon 22nd March. Thereafter open every weekend and bank holidays until end of October. See Opening Times for full details.
We shall be milling again this year and will produce stone ground wholemeal flour which is already becoming quite renowned for its bread making properties. We can, of course, only mill when the wind blows, but normally have a supply of flour on sale in our Visitor Centre.
If
you have not visited us already, then we hope that you soon will come and
see the this unique windmill working again.
Created, updated and hosted by Belper School
Last
updated on 8th April 2008
since 01/04/2004