In July 2009 Shipley Windmill closed to visitors.

The following descriptions were written before the mill closed in 2009

Outside Shipley Windmill Inside Shipley Mill | History of Shipley Mill | Section through Shipley Mill

Introduction - Types of Mill There are three kinds of windmill. The earliest of these is the post mill, which consists of a box-like structure of wood, containing all the machinery. This can be turned into the wind on a central upright post.  Later came the tower mill, which is built of brick or stone, except for the revolving cap on the top; and the smock mill, which is similar to the tower mill, but has wooden tower with six or eight sides, often on a brick base.  Shipley is an eight-sided smock mill, so-called because she is supposed to look like the old-fashioned farm labourer's smock.     Outside of the Mill Before you start your visit, go outside and look up at the Mill. You can see that she is built on a brick base, which is two stories high. Above that there are three more stories of wooden tower, tapering towards the top.  On the very top is the cap, perched like a hat on top of the wooden tower. The cap carries the sails, which in this part of the country are always known as sweeps. At the back of the cap is the fantail, another little windmill, set at right angles to the sails. The wind blowing against the sweeps causes them to rotate.  For the Mill to work, it is necessary for the sweeps to be facing directly into the wind. To do this the whole cap must be turned. This is done automatically by the fantail. The fantail turns when the wind blows on it from one side, driving a series of gears, connecting to a worm which in turn mates with a toothed ring on the top of the smock tower, known as the curb. It is on this curb that the cap rests and turns.  The cap has no wheels - it slides on greased iron plates on the top of the curb.  The whole cap, together with the sweeps, fantail and gearing weighs about fourteen tons.   The Sweeps The shuttered sweeps fitted to Shipley Mill are of the type known as Patent Sails. Invented by an engineer called William Cubitt in 1807, their big advantage is that they can be adjusted without the need to stop the Mill.  Each of the four sweeps carries a set of shutters, which can be opened and closed like a Venetian blind, by the movement of the uplongs, long wooden rods to which the shutters are connected. At the centre of the four sweeps, the uplongs are coupled to the spider, which connects through links and triangles to the striking rod, an iron bar that goes right through the windshaft, which carries the sweeps. At the back of the mill the striking rod connects to the chainwheel, from which is hung an endless chain, reaching down to the stage outside the second floor of the Mill. The striking weight is hung on this chain to hold the shutters either open or closed. The speed of the Mill can be regulated to some extent by altering the weight; a heavy weight will hold the shutters tightly closed in a light breeze, while a lighter weight can be used in a strong wind to allow the shutters to open slightly in the gusts. Ten to twelve turns per minute of the sweeps is a good speed for grinding.

Inside Shipley Windmill
Outside Shipley Mill | History of Shipley Mill | Section through Shipley Mill

Shipley mill has five floors. In order to see how she works, it is best to start at the top and work your way downwards. Climb up four flights, and you will reach the top of the Mill to start your tour.

The Bin Floor

The top floor of the smock tower is known as the bin floor, as around the floor are the bins into which the sacks of grain can be tipped, so that it can be fed into the millstones below. Above your head, you can see the cap, and the curb round which it slides to bring the sails into the wind. In the cap is the cast iron windshaft on which the sweeps turn. Mounted on the windshaft is the huge wooden gear known as the brakewheel, so called because round its rim is the wooden brake which is used to stop the mill. The brake is operated by the long iron brake lever, which can be raised by pulling the brake rope from the stage at the second floor level.

The brakewheel is fitted with wooden cogs made of hornbeam, each one individually mortised into the rim of the wheel. These cogs mesh with a horizontal iron gear, known as the wallower. Most of the gearing in the mill is wood against iron, which is why the Mill is so quiet in operation that you will not hear her turning. The brakewheel cogs were renewed in 1990, as the old ones were showing signs of wear. The wallower is mounted on the top of the upright shaft, which is a 20ft long piece of oak, extending through the floor to drive the machinery below.

The Sack Hoist

Also on the bin floor is the mechanism for operating the sack hoist, which is used for bringing sacks of grain up to the top of the mill.

Pulling the rope raises the end of the hoist drum until the conical end makes contact with the wooden cone under the wallower. The drum will then start to turn, winding up the hoist chain, and with it the sack of corn which has been fastened to its end.

The sack will push its way through the traps on each floor until it reaches the bin, or dust floor, where the miller can detach it and pour the contents into the appropriate bin.

There are eight bins on this floor - see how many you can find when you visit!

The Stone Floor

Go down the ladder, and you will reach the stone floor. Here you will see the millstones which do the actual grinding of the corn.

There are three pairs of millstones, one of which is opened up so that you can see how it works. Each pair of millstones consists of a bedstone, which is stationary, and a runner stone, which rotates above it. The runner stone is driven from below, through gearing, and the grain is fed into the eye, the hole in its centre, from which it passes outwards, being ground between the faces of the stones.

The grinding is done by the flat areas of the stones, which are picked with a series of small furrows or groves. The furrows serve to allow a current of air to pass through the stones, to keep the meal cool while it is being ground. 

The stones weigh up to three-quarters of a ton each, so to lift them up there is the stone crane with its curved iron arms which fit into holes on the sides of the stones. The miller needed to raise the runner stone and turn it over every two to six months to re-cut the furrows in it. This is known as dressing the stones. To prevent the flour from spilling out, the stones are encased in a vat or tun.

The bell alarm is fitted onto the vat, to warn the miller if he is running out of grain by ringing when the hopper above the stones is nearly empty. Also on this floor is the flour dresser, which consists of a wire mesh drum, inside which four brushes can rotate, forming a sort of giant rotary sieve, to separate the bran from the meal after it has been ground, producing white flour, semolina & bran.

The Meal Floor

Go down the ladder from the stone floor and you come to the meal floor. This is so called because the wholemeal from the stones arrives here down chutes from the millstones above, and falls into the bins where it can cool, fill sacks ready to take away, or be hoisted up to the bin floor to put through the dresser.

Look above your head - you can see the great spur wheel, with its wooden teeth, which are made of hornbeam. It drives the millstones through the small gears, known as stone nuts, which can be raised to disengage them when the stones are not in use.

Here you can also see the governor, which has two iron balls which swing out by centrifugal force as they turn, operating a series of levers which alter the gap between the stones.  As the mill speeds up, the governor will reduce the gap, counteracting the tendency of the runner stone to rise up as it runs faster, and ensuring that the quality of the flour remains constant.

If the mill is working, you will see the warm meal as it comes out from the end of the chute into the meal bin. The miller feels this between his thumb and fingers, in order to test the quality of the flour he is producing, and will make adjustments if it is not entirely to his liking.

To one side of this floor is the smutter, for removing the black spots of smut, a fungus disease which may grow on wheat grains if they get damp.  Above this is a sieve for getting rid of foreign bodies like grass, straw and poppy seeds from the grain. You can also see the big pulley, which brings the drive up to this floor of the mill from the engine below.

To the right of the smutter is the oat crusher, which was used for producing crushed oats for animal feed. There is also a hand quern - a small pair of hand operated millstones from India, which can be turned by visitors so that they can see for themselves how they work, and produce flour. Querns like this are still made, and are still in use in many parts of the world.
 

The Stage

Now, take a walk round the stage outside. Take care, though, if the Mill is working, as the sweeps come right down close to the stage. You will see the brake rope hanging down the back of the Mill, alongside the chain with the weight on it, which works the shutters of the sweeps. Look up at the back of the cap, where the fantail carriage sticks out. Under it, near the Mill, you will be able to see the worm, which drives the cap round.

Even if the fantail is working, you will not see the cap moving from here, as it travels far too slowly - it takes at least three-quarters of an hour to do a half turn, with the fan going flat out!

When you have seen enough on the stage, you can go back into the Mill, and down one more flight of steps. You arrive on the first floor, with its loading door, which was used to load and unload sacks from the carts which came to the Mill.

At the opposite side of this floor are three compartments, now used only for storage. These served to contain the different grades of animal feeds which were produced from the three-layer jog-scry, or sieve above. This floor is now used for showing a video of the mill. If you did not see this before you went up, you may care to stop here and see it after your tour, as it should help you to understand the workings of the Mill more fully.

Leaving the first floor by the stairway, you once more arrive at the ground floor. Look at the two big millstones which are leaning against the wall. You can clearly see the differences between the two types of stones - the one-piece peak stone from Derbyshire, and the French burr, quarried near Paris, which is made out of separate pieces of stone, cemented together and bound with an iron band.

The metal bins on this floor are used for storing grain before it is raised by the sack hoist to feed into the millstones.

If you now cross the ground floor to the door at the rear of the mill, you can go through to the engine shed, where you can see the engine, which will drive the mill on calm days. This engine, which came from a farm in West Chiltington, produces 17 horsepower, which is ample to drive a pair of millstones and other machinery on the floors above.

The far end of the engine shed was used as the shop, where you have in the past been able to buy souvenirs of your visit to Shipley Windmill. Originally the engine shed housed a steam engine which drove the mill, but this was scrapped in the 1920s, when the mill ceased commercial work.

Section Through Shipley Windmill
Outside Shipley Mill | History of Shipley Mill | Inside Shipley Mill

The Sweeps
The shuttered sweeps fitted to Shipley Mill are of the type known as Patent Sails. Invented by an engineer called William Cubitt in 1807, their big advantage is that they can be adjusted without the need to stop the Mill. 


Each of the four sweeps carries a set of shutters, which can be opened and closed like a Venetian blind, by the movement of the uplongs, long wooden rods to which the shutters are connected. At the centre of the four sweeps, the uplongs are coupled to the spider, which connects through links and triangles to the striking rod, an iron bar that goes right through the windshaft which carries the sweeps. 


The speed of the Mill can be regulated to some extent by altering the weight; a heavy weight will hold the shutters tightly closed in a light breeze, while a lighter weight can be used in a strong wind to allow the shutters to open slightly in the gusts. Ten to twelve turns per minute of the sweeps is a good.

The Brakewheel
Mounted on the windshaft is the huge wooden gear known as the brakewheel, so called because round its rim is the wooden brake which is used to stop the mill.

The brake is operated by the long iron brake lever, which can be raised by pulling the brake rope from the stage at the second floor level. The brakewheel is fitted with wooden cogs made of hornbeam, each one individually morticed into the rim of the wheel.

The Wallower
The Wallower is a horizontal iron gear, mounted on the top of the upright shaft.


Most of the gearing in the mill is wood against iron, which is why the Mill is so quiet in operation that you will not hear her turning.

The Upright Shaft
The upright shaft is a 20ft long length of oak, extending down through the centre of two floors to drive the machinery below.

The Great Spurwheel
The great spurwheel is fitted on the lower end of the upright shaft. It is made of iron, with separate wooden teeth which are made of hornbeam. 
It drives the millstones through the small gears, known as stone nuts, which can be raised to disengage them when the stones are not in use.

The Stone Nuts
The great spurwheel drives the millstones through the small iron gears known as stone nuts, which can be raised on a screw to disengage them when the stones are not in use.

The Millstones
There are three pairs of millstones. Each pair of millstones comprises a bedstone, which remains stationary, and a runner stone, which rotates above it.

The runner stone is driven from below through gearing, and the grain is fed into the hole in its centre, known as the eye, from which it passes outwards, being ground between the faces of the stones.

The stones weigh up to three-quarters of a ton each, so to lift them there is a stone crane which has curved iron arms which fit into holes on the edges of the stones.

The Grain Chutes
The grain from the bins falls by gravity down the chutes into the hoppers above the millstones. From here it goes down the shoe, which is shaken by the damsel, into the eye of the millstone to be ground into meal.

The Fantail
At the back of the cap is the fantail, which is like a giant version of those windmills on a stick that we all used to buy at the seaside. It is set at right angles to the sails, so that when the wind blows against the fantail blades from the side, it causes them to rotate, turning the cap of the mill until the sweeps are facing directly into the wind. 

The Cap
On the very top of the windmill is the cap, perched like a hat on top of the wooden tower.  The cap can be turned by the fantail to bring the sweeps of the mill into the wind so that they can turn.

The Striking Weight
The striking weight is hung on the chain which hangs from the chainwheel at the back of the mill. It operates the striking rod through a rack and pinion, to control the speed of the mill. If the wind is too strong, the weight will be lifted by the wind pressure, opening the shutters and so slowing the mill.

History of Shipley Windmill
Outside Shipley Mill | Section through Shipley Mill | Inside Shipley Mill

Shipley windmill is the youngest and the largest windmill in Sussex.
She - for windmills are always female - has been known at different times as Shipley Mill, King's Mill, Vincent's Mill and Belloc's Mill. She was built in 1879 for Mr. Fred Marten by Mr. Grist, millwright of Horsham, a firm that had its premises on the corner of London Road and Springfield Road. 


It is interesting to note that the estimated cost of building the Mill was £800, although she actually cost £2,500.


Marten and his wife ran the Mill and the village stores and post office at Kings Land house until he died in 1884. After his death his widow Sarah put the house, shop and the Mill up for auction, but it was not sold, and she continued to run it, with Robert Wood as miller, until it was finally sold in 1895 to Richard Vincent. 


Vincent took on Ernest Powell to work for him as miller. In 1906 Kings Land, the mill and five acres of surrounding land were bought by writer Hilaire Belloc, who then leased the mill to Powell.


Powell continued to operate the Mill until the end of her active life in 1926. During the time she was in active work there were seven or eight other windmills within easy reach. These included Coolham, Cripplegate, Littleworth and West Chiltington.


The number of mills was no doubt due to the dependence on them by local farmers, and the limited range of the horse-drawn wagons used to deliver the corn and to collect the meal after grinding. 


It is sometimes asked why windmills with their free power should have declined so rapidly in this country. There are probably several reasons. The introduction of motor vehicles allowed farmers to travel further afield, giving rise to bigger power-driven mills. The spread of small internal combustion engines later allowed them to do their own grinding reliably and economically. The increase in wages, too, made it difficult for millers to make their businesses pay without auxiliary power for the days when the wind did not blow.


This last problem did not, however, apply to Shipley Mill. In the shed alongside the Mill there stood a steam engine which, when in action, drove a belt connected to the Mill, so she could work on the days when there was no wind. Indeed, through the years from its construction until the end of the 1914-1918 war, Shipley Mill was always busy, and Mr. Powell was an active and experienced miller.

Volunteers at Shipley Windmill

Jonathan Creek

The mill is dressed both inside and out to fit the story-line.
The Meal Floor becomes Jonathan Creek's study, with plum-coloured walls and a matchboarded dado, and is filled with furniture and properties so that little of the mill can be seen.

Jonathan Creek's Study

Jonathan's Kitchen

The Bedroom

Alan Davies & Caroline Quentin 
by the Mill well

Alan Davies & Caroline Quentin 
by the Mill 

Caroline Quentin by the Mill

Hilaire Belloc