| Administrative History | Heage Windmill is situated between the villages of Heage and Nether Heage in the district of Amber Valley in the county of Derbyshire, England. To be more precise the Ordnance Survey map reference is SK 367507.
It is a Grade II listed tower mill with six sails and fan tail and built of local sandstone and is over two hundred years old. Standing on the brow of a hill it overlooks the village of Nether Heage like a silent sentinel.
The squat stone built tower is 24 feet in diameter and has a stone plaque by the entrance door marked “WSM 1850”, - the significance of which is not clear. The mill is built on a small mound and an entrance below could have enabled carts to back right into the building for loading and unloading.
The first indication of the mill is in an advertisement for a tradesman in the Derby Mercury of 16th June 1791,“Heage windmill is to be erected, any mason inclined to undertake the stone building to attend at the mill, all materials laid down in place.”
And soon after, in 1798:-
“To be let – complete smock mill with fantail, two pairs of stones,
good dressing machine – made to plans approved by Mr Wass –
standing in good situation at Heage.”
The mill was advertised in the Derby Mercury, 1816, offering for lease in Nether Heage “ a dwelling house, a smock mill and four acres of land.” However, tower mills were commonly called smock mills in Derbyshire at that time.
There was a small stone building, built some years after the mill itself, alongside the mill which was used as the kiln. The roof of this later fell in and for a long time only the shell remained. This has now been restored and turned into our Visitor Centre. A kiln was often used to dry grain before it was ground into flour or oatmeal. One report suggested that a woman who entered the kiln to turn the corn was burnt to death when her clothes caught fire.
In 1850 the two brothers Isaac and Joseph Shaw purchased the mill, trading as millers and grocers. A photograph probably dated before 1890 shows the mill with two common and two spring sales, a black ogee cap and a fantail which had 14 slim blades. It operated in this form until February 1894 when the mill was tail winded and the cap and four sails were blown off in a violent storm.
A contemporary photograph shows a man, presumably the miller, standing on the wreckage of the sails in front of the mill and the brake wheel protrudes from the top of the tower.
When the rebuilding commenced it was decided to replace the four sails with six patent sails, presumably to obtain more power, although in other respects the mill was externally similar. The work was carried out by George Chell, a millwright from nearby Crich where a house in that village carries a plaque bearing his name.
The wind shaft(1) and the six arm iron cross were cast by the Butterley Company of Ripley and were fitted out with 6 patent sails. A local carpenter, George Spendlove, of Heage, made the new Ogee cap, complete with a ball finial.
The 20’2” diameter ogee cap turns to face into the wind on an iron curb, supported on 24 cast iron wheels and is maintained centrally by 6 truck wheels running on the edge of the curb track.
The Brake wheel(2) is of wooden clasp arm construction and had 60 wooden teeth at 4 3/4” pitch. The circular wooden upright shaft(7) which is 15” diameter at the top and 17” at the bottom drives the iron wallower (45 teeth). The Great Spur Wheel(8) originally had 70 cogs at 3” pitch, in two staggered rows. The reason for this most unusual feature is not clear but whatever it was the cogs had been sawn off long ago and replaced by sections of iron teeth, bolted onto the wooden frame work, which have now disappeared.
There are two pairs of 5’0” peak mill stones(9) with conventional wooden vat etc. The stones are mounted on cast iron tentering arms(10), manually adjusted.
In the cellar below the mill there are four brick columns which were added about 1910 to strengthen the foundations of the mill, so all was well at that time and the mill continued to be in regular use until 1919, operated by Joseph and Enoch Shore, the sons of Thomas, and later, by T J (Tom) Shore. In fact worked in conjunction with the nearby water and steam mills in the valley to the west of the windmill which were under the same ownership. However, in 1919 the fan tail was severely damaged in a gale, most of the blades being lost. The damage was serious and presumably in line with economic situation of mills at that time, the mill closed down.
She (windmills are always referred to as "she") became almost derelict, drawings and photographs in the 1930’s showing her with sail bars hanging down in a totally neglected manner. An article in the Derby Evening Telegraph in 1934 reports that the mill was up for auction and includes a contemporary photograph showing that the fan tail was missing and that the sails were not complete. Care was needed it was said when entering the mill because some of the floors were rotten. The view, taken from the nearby road, shows the adjacent Windmill Cottage and mill standing in an area completely devoid of the trees and vegetation which presently surround the site.
The mill was struck by lightening in 1961 and a photograph taken in 1967 shows only the remnants of the sails and a stub where the fan tail and its staging had been. A preservation order (Number 1 by Derbyshire County Council under the 1962 Town and Country Planning Act) was placed upon the mill by Derbyshire County Council who bought the mill for £350 and the mill was then listed "grade II*" on the 27th May 1966.
Over the next few years restoration work was carried out by the millwrights Thompsons of Alford in Lincolnshire and new floors, sails, cap and fan tail were made. New sails were hoisted on the 15th March 1972 and the fan tail was lifted into place three days later. The mill is still in the care of Derbyshire County Council and in 1993 it was necessary to replace the large wooden brake wheel, since the sails broke free in high winds, despite having no shutters, and smashed up the old gear wheel. In 1997 she was struck by lightening, fortunately without serious damage, and a lightening conductor has now been fitted. Some of the sail stocks and sheers (major support beams) had been recently replaced by Derbyshire County Council but full restoration work began in earnest in September 2000 and continued until May 2002. The working mill finally opened to the public on 1st June 2002.
There are two groups associated with the restoration of Heage Windmill. The first is the Heage Windmill Society, which is a registered charity. 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. [http://heagewindmill.belperschool.co.uk/]
The second group is the Friends of Heage Windmill who actually operate the mill, who were formed soon after the Heage Windmill Trust as a supporting organisation. "Friends" organise events in and around Heage and the Windmill in order to raise extra money needed to help run and operate the old mill. They act as guides, helpers and work in the shop throughout the year. [http://heagewindmill.belperschool.co.uk/]
These papers tell the story of the rescue and restoration of the mill. The earliest item is a copy of a 1936 sale catalogue which includes the mill. There are also newsletters, press releases, news cuttings, plans and drawings of the mill. Its restoration was financed by a Heritage Lottery Fund grant and there are details of the bid and a spreedsheet showing how the money was spent. It also received a Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) conservation award. There is also a copy of the Heage Windmill Society's Trust deed. Before the Society. Before the Society took over the mill, it was opened twice a year by its owners, Derbyshire County Council. This collection also contains some DCC handouts frtom the 1960s and 1970s.
Also in the collection are two CD-ROMs of photographs of the mill before, during, and after the restoration, and a floppy disc which contains his personal diary of the story of the progress of the Heage windmill project. |
| Custodial History | These records were deposited with Derbyshire Record Office in April 2005. |