We started the new year by taking a look at the windmill that Geoff, who is one of the most longstanding HSC members, has been helping to restore over the last few years. This windmill was demolished in 1966 to make way for a new housing estate, but the main timbers and some other parts were kept in storage. A small group, Geoff being one of them, has taken on the job of rebuilding the mill on a new site which is adjacent to the recreation ground at Chinnor in Buckinghamshire and which is just across the road from the original site of the mill. This is actually the second windmill that Geoff has worked on, he also helped with the restoration of Lacy Green mill, a few miles from Chinnor, so Geoff's experience with windmill restoration goes back some twenty years. Look here for a website about Lacy Green mill.
On this occasion we were unable to gain access to the interior of the mill, but Geoff was able to show us round the outside. I hope that at some stage we will be able to come back and look inside. This type of windmill is known as a post mill, having the machinery housed in a 'buck' which stands on a vertical post and rotates as a whole to face the wind. Although it is not very clear from the photograph above, this mill is a bit unusual in that it stands on six brick piers arranged hexagonally, rather than four piers as is more usual. The buck of the mill has only recently been craned up onto the brick piers, the steel I beam lying on the ground in the foreground is one of two that was threaded through the structure of the buck to enable it to be lifted by crane. Although the work appears to be progressing well, there is some way to go before we will see flour coming from this mill.
The picture above shows the cast iron windshaft from the mill. This is the shaft near the top of the mill that carries the sails, the brake and the first gear of the gear train that drives the stones. The spars carrying the sails will be fitted into the square holes at the end of this casting. There will be a mechanism to automatically operate shutters on the sails to regulate the speed of the mill and this mechanism will be actuated by a rod passing down the hollow centre of the windshaft. Geoff explained that this is not the original windshaft for this mill, the original windshaft would have been timber since when the mill was built in about 1750 it would not have been possible to produce a casting of this size.
Having looked at the mill, we set off on our customary New Year's day walk. Chinnor is at the base of the escarpment that defines the north western edge of the Chiltern hills. We started by climbing a fairly steep path up this escarpement, then through woods and fields to a pub at Stokenchurch for lunch. Emerging from the pub we found it to be raining quite hard, the picture above shows some of us sheltering under an umbrella in front of the pub and wondering if it is worth waiting for the rain to ease off. The rain did ease off, but I dont think we saw sunshine that day. From Chinnor we drove to Geoff's house in Berkhamstead for tea and cakes, thanks Geoff for arranging all this for us.