EXCLUSIVE: Last Surviving Isle Of Wight Windmill Has Makeover

The last surviving windmill on the Isle of Wight is getting a makeover - which will mean it doesn't need any maintenance for the next 30 years.

EXCLUSIVE

Owners, National Trust say new sails (known as sweeps) and their timber beam supports, are being put back on the mill this week - after they were taken off before the pandemic because they were going rotten.

Father and son millwrights Geoff and John Wallis from Dorothea Restorations are using a crane and a cherry picker to lift the heavy timber sails (known as sweeps) and their new supporting 11m beams (known as stocks) almost 50ft in the air and bolt them into position.

Each pair of sweeps and stocks weighs around 600kg, and the complex and highly skilled job could take several days.  

The last set of sweeps were removed by the same millwrights in 2018 because they had begun to rot, after 30 years’ service. The new ones were built in Dorothea Restorations’ Bristol-based workshops.  

This kind of work is rare to witness these days; there are only between 40 to 50 complete windmills left in the country and just a handful of practising UK millwrights.

The total cost of removing, building, and installing the new sweeps and stocks is costing the National Trust £38,000. Approximately one third of this was met by local fundraising support and a grant from the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund. 

Speaking Exclusively to Isle of Wight Radio, Operations Manager at National Trust, Kathryn Wilson said:

'It's a grade one listed building so we have a duty to look after it and make sure it is still part of the wonderful landscape. It was painted by Turner - an unfinished painting. It is just really important to look after it for future generations - the work will be finished by Friday and we are hoping everything will last for around 30 to 40 years.

"When I first came to the windmill, I just fell in love with it - it is such a wonderful, iconic building, inside it still has its original machinery."

Photo thanks to Paul Knights

History of the Windmill

In the early 1700s, when Bembridge was almost an island in its own right the windmill was built.

For two centuries the windmill provided a service for the local community and work for generations of millers.

Little is known about the millers although in January 1811 the Hampshire Chronicle reported that 'Mr Cook, miller of Bembridge [was] found frozen to death by his own mill'.

Built in the early 1700s, Bembridge Windmill is a treasured and much-loved local feature and an important part of the Island’s industrial past. For over 200 years, this little industrial gem has served its community.

Poignantly, milling stopped and never resumed when the men left to fight in the Great War. In more recent years, the mill has been a wartime shelter, a Home Guard HQ, and has faced dereliction.

It was rescued by the National Trust in 1961 and this year celebrates its 60th anniversary in the care of the conservation charity.  

Nestled in the quiet corner of a field, Bembridge Windmill is perched high enough for its sails to be seen across the surrounding countryside – a view that remains almost unchanged since it was immortalised in watercolour by JMW Turner in 1795.

Entry will be by pre-booked ticket only, three days a week. To book, please visit: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/bembridge-windmill

Visitors and Islanders will once again be able to discover the mill’s stories, and explore its18th-century machinery as they clamber to the top, taking in glorious views half-way up across rolling fields and out to the sea.

Thanks to Josh Thomas for the photo

Find out more about the windmill here.

If you have photos of the windmill, send them to us at [email protected]

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