THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

FINDON WINDMILL'S SISTER MILL — High Salvington Windmill (also known as Durrington Mill)

Map reference
TQ 122 067

Copyright Valerie Martin 2000.

On the downland opposite the Findon Windmill site there is another picturesque windmill.   This is the one at High Salvington.

I call this the sister to the Findon mill and I have been inside.   It was the first mill to be insured against fire by "Royal Exchange Insurance" policy No. 33161 dated 1757. 

This is not often known, but the mill was also called the Durrington Windmill in 1808 as it lay within the Durrington Parish. 

It has been brought to my notice that the above painting depicting the High Salvington Windmill on the skyline overlooking Findon has been attributed (by some persons) to the Findon artist, Charles William Taylor (1878-1960).  

The watercolour is, in fact, by Dr. H. W. Hoffman and dated 1864 before Taylor was born!  

The picture clearly shows the High Salvington escarpment before any of the houses were built.... also West Hill and Church Hill above Findon.   I think you will agree that the scene is rather enhanced by the lack of the houses in Findon Valley also.

It seems that the painting below showing High Salvington (on the right)...... looking south towards the sea..... has also been interpreted by some persons as being from the hand of Charles William Taylor of Findon.   

Again, this is in fact the work of Dr. H. W. Hoffman in August 1864 and he gave it the title of "Near Worthing".

High Salvington black post mill and stands 320 ft. above sea level, commanding a superb view northwards over the valley and village of Findon. This is the last remaining windmill to serve the Worthing district and still faces any turbulent weather the elements can throw at it from out at sea.

The windmill has a long history, as one might expect, and was most likely originally built around 1700, as a mill was indicted on the site on a 1724 map.

The great oak post on which the windmill rotates is 21 ft. 6 in. high.   The base of the post is surprisingly several inches clear of ground level.  The immense weight of the whole windmill is taken up through the diagonal quarter-bars and on to the horizontal cross-trees of the trestle.

The windmill worked for nigh on two hundred years but the end was near in 1897 when the milling business almost ceased but the property did not receive the demise of its sister mill at Findon..... and grinding limped on.

Stephen Scutt was the last miller at High Salvington Windmill.    The windmill was only grinding animal feed up until its final closure in 1905.  The Coote family were milllers for Colonel Wisden and they employed Stephen and he perhaps had to split his time working between this windmill and the Cissbury Windmill.   Unfortunately, Stephen Scutt drowned himself in a water tank in 1906 because he was depressed.

The late John Pelling told me that Cootes the bakers were connected with the last working days of both Salvington and Cissbury Windmills and delivered bread as far as Findon from their Salvington Road bakery.   His mother has told him that they brought their carts to Ockendon's Wheelwrights shop in Nepcote (site of Nepfield Close) to be repaired.   One of their carts can be seen in one of the old photographs of North End.  

The Cootes bakery at Salvington closed in 1984 and by then it was operated by Knowles.   A millstone was still in the yard at this date.   Bakers Court now stands on this site.

I am unsure who executed this delightful sketch of the High Salvington Windmill but it was issued under licence granted by Ministry of Supply.

The High Salvington Windmill stood in ruin with an air of dejection until 1907/8 when the old timber roundhouse was replaced with a concrete structure. 

From 1912 the windmill served visitors as a tearooms until the 1950s.

High Salvington Windmill in the 1920s.

To celebrate High Salvington Windmill's 150th anniversary, a beautiful cake  was made in July 1924.  The top decoration top was, of course, a windmill —

Pam Stepney of Findon says that as a child she was taken to the High Salvington Windmill many times in the 1940s and 1950s to have tea in the round room under the mill.   She remembers being intrigued by a large cabinet on the left hand side as she went in the door.  This housed a musical box and she says there was a large upright perforated brass disc under glass.  She does not remember ever hearing it play and wonders what happened to it?

In 1957, Captain Walter Douglas-Jones, a Boer War veteran, former Worthing town councillor, Rhodesian Member of Parliament and owner of High Salvington Windmill, died at the age of 82.

Worthing Borough Council eventually came to the rescue of the windmill and purchased it in 1959 for £2,250.   Edwin Hole, Millwrights of Burgess Hill, undertook restoration work in the early 1960s and replaced much of the heavy timberwork in the body of the structure.  From then on the story starts to unfold.

July, 1959

During a considerable high wind in 1976, one of the giant stocks carrying the sails broke and subsequent inspection revealed that all was not well with the structure.  The ravages of age, nature and death-watch beetle had seriously weakened timbers in the trestle supporting the 40 tons or so.

Prompted by these findings, the High Salvington Mill Trust was inaugurated later in that year and the decision was carried to complete the restoration and bring the mill back to its former glory. 

In the summer of 1981 the first High Salvington Windmill fête was held and this was to become an annual event each July in the years to come.

The work of restoration continued and took many years of sweat and tears.   Prior to repairs on the body commencing, the trestle supporting the 38 ft. high mill had to be renewed.  To reduce the huge load of the mill, the stones and machinery were dismantled and stored. 

Later, a gigantic steel frame was erected to support the weight of the body of the mill while the trestle and crown-tree were replaced.  (The crown-tree being the large baulk of oak sitting on top of the post bearing the total weight of the mill).

A new 10 ft. diameter brake-wheel was created as an exact replica of the original which had crumbled and decayed over the life of the mill.  The rim was refurbished with elm, the clasp-arms of oak and the 136 teeth were made of apple wood.  The wheel was re-installed in 1985 and at the same time the brake shoe was fitted.

Amazingly, the hurricane on 16th October 1987 gave the windmill a new lease of life as on that fateful night the mighty gale turned the single pair of sails for the first time since the windmill had been abandoned.  This was in spite of the brake being applied.  Fortunately, the mill itself only received minimal damage in the extremely high wind. 

During the ensuing years, several of the weakened beams were replaced and the leaking cladding was renewed.  The tail pole was also lengthened by 7 ft. and the much rotted wind shaft was replenished. 

The floors in the structure and the millstones were replaced and machinery was repaired and re-fitted.   Volunteers drew up working plans for new sweeps.  These were on the lines of the known dimensions, old photographs and information gleaned from other mills.  The 58 ft. diameter distinctive white sweeps seen above the trees on the skyline from Findon village, were built and manhandled into position during the summers of 1987 and 1988.

The concrete tearoom structure vanished when the original style of the roundhouse was reinstated again during renovations in 1990. 

New grain bins were constructed along similar lines to the old rotted ones and on the 4th April 1991 there was great excitement and anticipation when grinding could begin again after some ninety-four years.  The millstones of High Salvington Windmill slowly started moving again.

The tail wheel was also restored and re-toothed and the flour grader was rebuilt from a past photograph, around its original shaft and spur wheel.  Although all of the windmill machinery is now capable of turning, grinding is only conducted with the front set of stones. 

The  granary on the windmill site was rescued from an estate near East Grinstead and was restored in 1994.  It now contains a permanent exhibition and is also used for grain storage.

The story was not complete until in 1997, when the Trust obtained a grant from the National Lottery.  This enabled the building of the New Barn which houses a store, light refreshments and toilets. 

From the steps of the High Salvington Windmill the visitors can now stand and look northwards over the downland to the site of the Findon Windmill.  I can well imagine how the millers of bygone days may have signalled to each other across the great divide.

Continue if you would like to read about the Kithurst Black Windmill (otherwise known as Box Mill) — featuring Arthur Pelling's Ride

 Back to Windmill Index

 Back to Main Index

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.