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

    A MILLER'S TALE

(......and his ghost)

Copyright Valerie Martin 2004.

I feel another windmill story coming on.... with a story of an unconsecrated burial.    A neighbouring windmill to Findon was that on Highdown Hill (Map Ref: TQ093044).    It is a draughty south west slope of Highdown Hill  and was occupied by a windmill at least since 1587 and probably even earlier.

Highdown Hill was always inhabited it seems and even more so in these days when people (like myself) frequent the area to take dogs for walks.   It was used in prehistoric times and in its day has housed a Bronze Age settlement, fortifications in the Iron Age, a Roman bath house and an Anglo-Saxon cemetery.   More than a hundred or so burials were unearthed and the resulting evidence suggests that the inhabitants were pagans.... even though they lived less than a mile from the Romano-British Christian villa at nearby Northbrook.   

John Olliver was born in 1709 but I have been unable to find anything out about his earlier life before 1750 when he took over the Highdown Windmill from his father, Clement.     Where was the location of the actual windmill?   It was on the south west of the fort on the summit..... a dip in the ground is all that is remaining of the foundations.   No even a plaque designates the spot.

Olliver was a popular surname in those days, especially in Angmering and Goring.  In the Findon baptism records there is mention of the baptism of Cordelia who was the daughter of Ann and James Olliver (a yeoman of Findon) and they just may have been relations of John Olliver just over the hillside.

By 1763, John had built what he described as his "summer house" near the crown of Highdown Hill and it was to be his residence for the next thirty years.    His actual home was situated a couple of hundred yards downhill to the north-east just in front of the woods.   If you can't locate it.... start at the tomb.......the nearby brick wall is the boundary of John Olliver's land (his tomb is not even on his own land!)    Go northwards and the cottage and well were down the hill a bit and in the corner of a small field.

The late John Pelling told me that mill stones from the windmill stood on each side of John's front door.    These were laying on the ground when he saw them in 1965.    There was also a pond and a well and the site was totally cleared in 1979.

John Olliver was described as a strange chap.....stout, active and cheerful and a great man for reading the bible.    Many would have regarded him as an eccentric .... perhaps a joker....but his friends described him as a gentle and humorous soul.   Most local people thought he lived a deeply contemplative life, though in later years it was alleged that he had involvements with several young ladies of Goring.

A year after moving in, he undertook a project that contributed to his notoriety.   He constructed his own brick and stone tomb just a few yards from his front door (on land then owned by William Westbrooke Richardson).....and then made a wooden coffin for himself.   Mounting this on wheels for easy transportation , he added a mysterious spring attachment and kept the whole thing tucked under his bed.  Could this have been a cunning place for the miller to conceal his share of any smuggler's booty coming his way?  No one would think of looking in the man's coffin.

The miller also often amused himself in the construction of machinery.  He was an ingenious chap and two of his novel creations were attached on the roof of his property for all to see.   One represented a mill and miller.  Each time the shafts were moved in the breeze on Highdown Hill,  a sack opened as if by magic and the miller raised his shovel to fill it with flour.

A second working model depicted a customs officer with an upraised sword.  He was pursuing a smuggler with in turn an old crone pursuing the officer and viciously hitting him about the head with her broom.

Few of John's contemporaries had little doubt that he was involved in smuggling, probably as a lookout.   During the 17th and 18th centuries, smuggling contraband was rife all along our Sussex coastline and considered by many to be a respectable part-time occupation.  

It could be asked why a working miller would build his property atop the highest, draughtiest hill in the area.   Surely not just so that he could reflect on the serene view of the green fields stretching to the sea on nice days and sit and meditate.    It was far more likely that this astute character had chosen the high vantage point because it was ideal for sighting smugglers approaching with their contraband.    He could then give the smugglers advance warning of any customs men who might be in hot pursuit.  He is also reputed to have used the sails of his windmill in a certain position to signal when the excise officers were not around. 

In his later years, the miller spent many hours in a little wooden shack that he had built at t5he head of his tomb.... no one appears to have any reason for his doing so.

 John died aged 84 and his funeral was held on Friday 22nd April 1793 and was flamboyant to say the least and drew thousands from all over Sussex.... it is said over 2,000 curious members of the public climbed up the hillside for the event.   Despite the solemnity of the occasion, it is said that rioting occurred amongst the onlookers.... although I am not quite sure why.  Perhaps it was a drunken affair?   His coffin painted white was drawn to the tomb by an absolute bevy of young maids (must have been strong ones) robed in white...... which was a custom normally reserved for the burial of very young and hence sinless children).    There were eight girls in total and one of them, Ann Street aged twelve years old (also donned in white) read the funeral sermon which John had very carefully composed himself.  

In accordance with John's wishes, his mourners were dressed in colourful clothes.    

When his will was read it was discovered that he had made a specific wish regarding his tomb and his daughter, Owena, would get her share  —

"on condition that from time to time, and at all times hereafter keep in good repair, the inscription thereon plain and legible"

It is said that John was buried upside down according to his desire — because he believed that at the Last Judgement the whole world would be turned upside down, and he wanted to be the only being facing the right way after the frantic topsy-turvy upheaval.

I now have a little mystery to solve.  In the Church of St. Edmund the Martyr in the village of Horningtoft in Norfolk a bible was discovered in September 2005 bearing the name of "Henry Southward"..... "his Book Decm 3 1727".    There appears to be no record of the name of Southward in Horningtoft.

The next page of the bible contains the following inscription regarding John Oviler/Olliver (maybe spelt incorrectly) at Highdown who was buried April 26th 1793  —

The windmill at Highdown continued working for 30 years after John Olliver's death and any working parts were said to have then been sold off by his remaining relatives.  

One day the windmill was blown down and it has been said that local people heard the crash on the Angmering side of the hillside.    The windmill was eventually cleared away in 1826.

John Olliver's cottage was occupied for a further fifty years and was demolished sometime in the mid-nineteenth century but I have been unable to find any image of this as yet.   A new house was built on the site.   Neil Rogers-Davis of Angmering tells me that his wife's father, Cliff Potten (the Patching hurdle maker), was born there in 1905.   The Potten family left the house in about 1914 and it fell into ruin and was finally demolished in the early 1930s.  Some of its foundations were still clearly visible in the 1950s, Neil tells me.   If you know where to look, partial foundations can still be seen to this day.

A new windmill was subsequently constructed on Highdown Hill in 1826 by the Grant family who inherited Ecclesden Manor and substantial wealth from Martha Foreman.   Neil Rogers-Davis of Angmering tells me that the Grant family worked the windmill until its demise. I have no details of when this mill was demolished.

Needless to say stories and legends have focused on the area and abound.   It is said that if one runs around John Olliver's tomb twelve times backwards at midnight (being careful not to fall over I guess), the Devil will be raised.   

Running seven times forward round the tomb will summon the ghost of John Olliver.    It is asserted by some that the verses on the tomb (now extremely worn) warn that this will occur.     The words may infer nothing of the sort and are simply the pious type of poem popular of that era.    Words on the end slab, surmounted and decorated by a carving of Time and Death, the latter shown as a skeleton, contain the lines.....

.

Back in 1906 there were suggestions for the restoration of the Miller's Tomb as it was said to be "falling into a state of decay".   A hundred years later, it is rather surprisingly still the case..... and photographs from the 1906 era look very spick and span to me.

Highdown Hill was made a scheduled Ancient Monument as long ago as 1930.    A radar station was built within the fort during the Second World War.   As would be expected, it was surrounded by dugouts and machine gun posts, damaging some of the archaeology.   The Miller's Tomb has been vandalised over the years and has been rebuilt since the photograph above.

The earthwork in the centre of the picture stands on what was probably the junction of two ancient trails, one running east and west over Highdown Hill and one branching off towards the north through the woods towards Clapham.   This would join up with the Blackpatch flint mines and then the ancient ridgeway of the downland on Chantry Hill.

The site is now owned by the National Trust and is used by the public for walking dogs more than anything else.   Highdown Hill has now also been designated a Site of Nature and Conservation Interest due to the wealth of flora (including orchids).

Here is Suzie demonstrating the Miller's seat right next to the Miller's tomb in May 2008...

click on pic to enlarge

I must record here that in April 2002 a proposal emerged for once again building a windmill on the historic setting of Highdown Hill.  A Planning Application was submitted to the Arun District Council for a £125,000. thirty metre high traditional Sussex smock windmill,  250 metres from the actual site of John's windmill.   These plans were submitted by A. P. McIntyre & Sons (owners of the McIntyre Nursery in Ferring) and the proposals were to be just outside the area of outstanding natural beauty..   The plans also showed a visitor centre, shop and car park for eight vehicles.  

The application immediately was opposed by a number of local groups (and a host of private individuals) as unwelcome commercial development of agricultural land, a poor neighbour for the National Trust area of Highdown itself, and a potential cause of more traffic chaos on the busy Worthing – Littlehampton road.

Among other objections that flooded in, points were made about the authenticity of the proposed replica windmill. The Sussex Windmill Trust quickly pointed out that the property owned by John Olliver was a post mill, not a smock mill, and that it stood on the top of the hill not below the slope. They also maintained that it would be impossible to build a replica of any kind of 18th century windmill in appropriate materials for the cost the developers have proposed. The proposal did not go ahead! 

Continue if you would like to read about High Salvington Windmill.

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.