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Sketch by Valerie Martin in 1997 of Findon Windmill and how it may have appeared near the end of its days, together with the Mill Cottages, looking towards Chanctonbury Ring. First published in Downs Country, November 1997. |
THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.
THE DEMOLITION OF THE WINDMILL
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Sketch by Valerie Martin in 1997 of Findon Windmill and how it may have appeared near the end of its days, together with the Mill Cottages, looking towards Chanctonbury Ring. First published in Downs Country, November 1997. |
Copyright Valerie Martin 1997
Text first published in the West Sussex Gazette 6th March, 1997
No photographs have come to light to depict the working Windmill complete with sweeps. This has prompted me to put pen to paper and reconstruct the elusive mill from various angles, as I believe it might have looked over a century ago. After studying the site, remaining cottage and the contours of the land, I have sketched my own representation of how the post mill would have fitted into the landscape. I have taken into account the still existing crumbling flint wall, which surrounded the location and the existing original miller's cottage with its intriguing cellar and tunnel leading out to the mill. This has all given clues and enabled me to pinpoint the exact location of the windmill that had been busy grinding flour for some 68 years on the Findon downs.
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A fanciful likeness of Findon Windmill and how it may have looked in the nineteenth century. Sketch by Valerie Martin in 1997. |
The Findon windmill was operational at least until 1891. It is purely my own theory, but I just wonder if the hurricane force winds blowing along the coastline on Wednesday, 11th November 1891 had anything to do with its demise? The windmill may have received such a battering up on the Downs that it assisted in its destruction? Perhaps I shall never know the answer. Findon villagers definitely woke up to a westerly gale of great severity that Wednesday and chimney pots and slates flew over the rooftops of the cottages. The gale blew itself out within a few hours.
The windmill stood a ruin for some time and then at some date before living memory was systematically demolished. The reason why it was destroyed can only be a matter for conjecture. Did an enterprising owner of the site require the materials and flints from the roundhouse for a future project?
It is more than probable that the industrial scene of dereliction looked so ramshackle as to offend someone’s eye. The windmill was in full view of the
Muntham Court mansion across the valley and it is quite likely that the Thynne family had a hand in the demolition.|
I do not have the exact date of this map but I guess it to be between 1876 and the 1890s and it clearly shows the Findon Windmill |
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Site plan showing the Mill House and some semblance of the windmill's structure still remaining on the Findon Downs in 1896. |
At some point the Windmill vanished without trace. It must have been demolished and the site cleared, leaving only the tiny cottage, cellar and fascinating tunnel as a reminder of where it once stood.
The Mill Cottages were in a state of disrepair by 1926 and the owner, Colonel Ulric Oliver Thynne of the Muntham Estate, was ordered to carry out renovations, which caused some controversy. This was reported in the press at the time. Readers even wrote to the newspaper in 1926 to say they did not know a windmill had existed in Findon. Therefore, it had vanished many years previously.
The Mill Cottages in the adjoining field remained in a somewhat dilapidated state. Many of the cottages were uninhabited by the Second World War, and afterwards they were finally demolished. The last resident to leave the old cottages before they were finally pulled down was Mrs. Golds. She lived in one of the west facing dwellings and could often be seen outside on sunny days, contentedly smoking her clay pipe.
Continue if you would like to hear about some of the Memorable Mill Cottage Occupants.
THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — was launched by Valerie Martin in January 1999 and will grow to be a historical record of life in Findon, West Sussex, U.K.
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E-mail: valeriemartin@findonvillage.com |
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