HIGH SALVINGTON, WORTHING
There is evidence of a mill in the parish of Durrington in 1615 when church court records show that the miller of Durrington was fined for not paying his portion of the tithe that Durrington paid to Tarring.
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Budgen's map of 1724 shows a mill in the present position, close to Mill Lane, which is part of the old road over the Downs. |
| | The present mill is a black mid 18th century head and tail post mill and the last remaining of eight or nine mills in the Worthing area. She ran two sets of stones grinding wheat for flour and oats, peas and beans, mainly for animal feed. She stands on West Hill at High Salvington, in the parish of Durrington, with commanding views over the English Channel to the south west and Findon Valley to the north east, to catch the predominant winds for grinding.
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She finished working around 1897, as windmills started to become obsolete with the increasing use of steam, and finally ceased milling operations early in the 20th century.
The mill has been substantially restored since 1976 to appear as she did in 1897. The octagonal concrete roundhouse (which replaced an earlier wooden one) was built in 1907 and used as a restaurant in the early half of the century. This has now been replaced with a single storey wooden roundhouse, to resemble the earlier one. |
Over a period of 30 plus years the High Salvington Mill Trust formed in 1976, with the help of the Friends of the
Mill have worked to enable the Mill to grind again, which was achieved in April 1991.
The mill site now has an old granary, rescued from Kingscote and restored by the volunteers, who have also built a souvenir shop, tea shop and toilets.
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  Open Days are between April & September on the first and third Sundays in each month from 2.30 pm until 5 pm. Mill guides tours, shop and refreshments available. The mill will be open on the Sunday of National Mills Weekend.
The newsletter of High Salvington Mill Trust Limited is available on the website.
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| | High Salvington Mill site now has a second set of sails turning in the wind. This is a small hollow post mill wind pump rescued from Glynde. Its original purpose was to pump water for two steam engines which drove an aerial rope way bringing gault clay from a quarry two miles away to the Telepherage Company. It drove two lifting pumps with a single throw crankshaft by means of a connecting rod inside the hollow post.
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The pump remnants were originally acquired from Lord Hampden in 1988 by Andrew Norman. In 2006 the chairman of the Sussex Mills Group suggested that the High Salvington Mill volunteers might like to continue the restoration as Mr Norman was moving away from the area. Now the mill once again turns, as yet without pumps. |
Text : Peter Casebow / Roy Beynon
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