THE MILL October 2025
Newsletter for Members and Friends of High Salvington Windmill
We’ve had an exciting year at the Windmill! Our main activity is to raise funds for and manage this wonderful Grade II listed building, and we’ve had much success this season. On the maintenance side, our fantastic team of volunteers has repaired the brake system and made improvements throughout the Wind
mill. We also had to trim the bean tree on the site because it was getting tangled with the sails when the Mill is turned – very necessary when the wind direction changes. Our smartmolen system, which monitors wind direction and the status of sails, is now working well. Residents can check out windmill activity (along with a wind forecast) by visiting smartmolen.com and looking through the list to find ours.
Open days
Our “Open Sundays” continue to be well supported. Popular events included the Book Sale followed by a busy ‘Scalextric’ day. The Classic Car event was well attended, and the annual September Craft Fair was also a great success. There is a report on this year’s Fete later in this newsletter
Christmas event
We invite High Salvington residents to attend the ‘Carols round the Bonfire’ event on Friday, December 19th at 7.15 pm. This event is not advertised on social media because we tend to keep it private for our residents as a small token of appreciation for the traffic disruption on our Fete and other special days. We serve mince pies and hot drinks.
Volunteers
Overall, the Windmill continues to thrive, thanks to the hard work, willingness, and skills of its dedicated volunteers. Without them, the Mill would fall quickly into disrepair. You can help us by joining the team and ensuring the Windmill’s future. We are currently seeking a new Treasurer to replace our long-standing and outstanding volunteer, Hazel. Hazel wishes to dedicate more time to her other volunteering activities at the Mill.
Thank you, volunteers
Without our volunteers, there would be no open days, no delicious cakes, no fete or craft fair, and the Mill would fall into disrepair. As a token of appreciation, the Board invited volunteers from every team, from shop helpers to fete stall holders, from maintenance staff to guides, to attend one of the barbecues arranged in May and September. The occasions were well attended, despite the September one having to be postponed due to a forecast of heavy rain. Volunteers enjoyed meeting up and putting the world to rights.
On the next page are a couple of pictures taken during the events. Thanks to Julie Gaskell, Sam Bisset, and Tom Mulholland.
This is a longer newsletter than normal -there is a lot to report. Please do read through till the end.
Lucy Brooks and Paul Minter, Co-Chairs
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| Tom busy cooking
(September) |
Volunteers Liz and Norman (September) | Julie and Sam at the grill (May) |
Extended workshop
Work has begun on the alterations to extend the existing workshop into the adjacent space, formerly occupied by the shop. Maintenance volunteers meet every Tuesday, and the work is progressing at a faster rate than anticipated. The new workshop area will feature double doors and a window, while the existing access door will also remain in place. The whole frontage will be clad with black painted feather-edge board to match the rest of the barn. The finish for the doors and window will be similar to those elsewhere in the building. The picture below shows the work in progress.
We expect that the project will provide much-needed space for tools, storage, and a working area, enhancing the efficiency of the maintenance volunteers and alleviating the need for work to be shifted into the roundhouse or granary due to a lack of space.
The shop will be relocated to a new, purpose-built building situated between the granary and the kitchen. We have consulted with as many volunteers as possible, and consequently, many options for its design and position have been considered. The new shop must be accessible to both those who operate it and its visitors, while being aesthetically pleasing and sympathetic in design to blend in with the adjacent buildings.
We are currently awaiting an informal decision from the Planning Authority before we can proceed.
Wild flowers at the Mill
In 1994, Roger Ashton wrote a list of wildflowers he had spotted in the mill grounds. His list was discovered in 2024 by our archivist team, and a new project was born. Lucy Brooks, co-chair of the Mill Trust, decided to catalogue every wild flower spotted during a period of five months from February to June. A strip was left unmown at the northern end of the field so that species could flourish without being cut back. It was mown down at the end of June in readiness for the Fete. But during those months, Lucy and her team spotted evidence of almost seventy different species. The team spent a morning sowing wild flower seeds in the hope of promoting further species. The summer was so dry, however, that they failed to thrive. During the summer, Wendy Funnel, our archivist, created a display board showing some of the specimens and Lucy created an album containing photographs of everything that was spotted.
Below are a few images from the album, which will be on display for visitors next season.
| Ivy flowers in autumn, and fruits in spring
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Shy Herb Robert loves the shady spots
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Oxeye d aisies flowering in May |
Defibrillator
Thanks to Director Rick Romero, a retired paramedic, the Mill has acquired a defibrillator, which is now located in a cabinet in our hedge and accessible to the public. We remind you that a defibrillator is also available at the Refreshment Rooms. The new defibrillator will save precious moments should an incident occur in the eastern end of High Salvington. The Board has a duty of care to visitors and volunteers at the mill. A defibrillator available to all extends our service to the whole community. To use, just break the seal on the cabinet, remove the defibrillator, open, and it will then tell you what to do next.
Provisional calendar for the 2026 season. All times are from 2:30 to 5 unless otherwise stated. May be subject to alteration
Sunday 22nd March Volunteers’ coffee morning. All are welcome to come and see how you can help. 10:30 am; Guides to arrive at 10:00 am for briefing
Sunday 5th April First open afternoon
Sunday 19th April Open afternoon
Sunday 3rd May Open afternoon
Sunday 10th May Open afternoon – National Mills Day.
Sunday 17th May Open afternoon
Sunday 7th June Book fair and open afternoon
Sunday 21st June Open afternoon
Sunday 5th July Annual Fete (2 pm – 5 pm)
Sunday 19th July Open afternoon
Sunday 2nd August Classic cars, Scalextric event, and open afternoon
Sunday 16th August Open afternoon
Sunday 6th September Craft fair (1 pm to 5 pm)
Sunday 20th September Open afternoon
Sad news from the maintenance team
In our last newsletter, we informed you about two of our wonderful volunteers who passed away earlier this year. Sadly, they have now been joined by volunteer Pat Marshall. Pat served for many years as a valued guide and also regularly assisted with maintenance. He is missed.
The Fete
This year’s Fete took place on July 6th. The forecast wasn’t great as heavy rain was expected. Fortunately for us, apart from a brief shower, it held off until 4 pm, with just an hour to go before we were due to close anyway. It meant that many of our volunteers got a little wet! Despite that, our visitors had a great time, and we raised around £4000 after expenses, which is a welcome amount of funding. We rely on the Fete to keep our mill sails turning and the grindstones grinding.
Here are a few images from the afternoon.
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The Sompting Morris dancers entertained, the Town Crier opened the gates, and the heavens opened on our Co-Chair, Captain Paul Minter.
Only the plants on the plant stall enjoyed the rain |
Membership of the Mill
If you are not already a member of the Mill, or are an annual member, why not join or upgrade your membership to a life membership? Please find a form below to fill in and email or deliver to our Membership Secretary. You can pay by BACS, cash, or cheque, or come up on an open day and pay at the gate. The bank details are: High Salvington Mill Trust Ltd. Sort Code: 40-47-25, a/c no. 81712802. And why not make a standing order while you are there?
“———————————————————————————————————
SUBSCRIPTION TO THE HIGH SALVINGTON MILL TRUST LTD
Annual membership per person £ 6.00 o per couple (dual) £ 11.00 o
Life membership per person £60.00 o
I/we enclose CASH/CHEQUE payable to HIGH SALVINGTON MILL TRUST LTD
NAME: ______________________________________________________________________________
ADDRESS: ___________________________________________________________________________
Post Code_________________
Signed _____________________ Date ___________________ email: _____________________________
Send to: Membership secretary, 69 Hayling Rise, High Salvington, Worthing, BN13 3AG
email: membership@highsalvingtonmilltrust.co.uk
Data Protection: If you object to your name and address being kept on computer, please raise the matter with the membership secretary.
Registered in England Company no. 04199780 Registered office: 12 Furzeholme,
Worthing BN13 3BS
The reason we do all this: grinding grain, producing flour
With increasingly frequent windy days, the team has been able to produce flour on several occasions this year. We now purchase our grain from a local farm and clean it ourselves before grinding. The team needed to create a giant sieve/sorter to separate the wheat from the chaff. This device removes impurities and husks, preparing the grain for the production of high-quality stone-ground flour. There is an excellent video on YouTube from a grinding session that took place last May.
| 1 The grain sorter
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2 Flour coming down the spout
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3 Ready to start bagging
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| 4 Bagging the flour
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5 Filled flour bags (1.362 Kg)
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6 The result
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Flour – limited amount available
If you would like to purchase some of our flour, ask at an open day, or otherwise, especially in the off season, keep an eye on our Facebook page for availability updates. The 1.362 Kg (3lb) paper bags cost £3 and the cotton bags (same weight) cost £3.50. Please remember that we sell it as “souvenir flour”, not food grade. But the author of this newsletter bakes bread with it, as you can see from above. And I am still alive!
Volunteering in the early days
From the 1980s until only a decade or so ago, Betty Potts was the driving force behind much of the necessary behind-the-scenes work. Besides the actual renovation work, there were plenty of jobs to do – mowing the grass, setting up for open afternoons, delivering leaflets all over town, or organising the tombola and raffles for the Fete. On milling days, while her husband, Bob, and the team were busy milling, she weighed and bagged the flour. Betty also served teas and coffees at the Annual General Meeting. In fact, without Betty, the sails would not have turned so well, nor would the grindstones have milled flour so efficiently, and the open days could not have taken place. Thank you to our star volunteer. Here she is, pictured at the recent barbecue for volunteers.
Finally – news from our archivists
John and Doreen Tripcony generously donated to the Mill this picture by Eva Lavamann, a former resident of High Salvington. We are now displaying it in the Gatehouse. What do you think of it? It has divided the Archive team! If you know anything about Eva Lavaman, please come to the Gatehouse on a Monday morning and tell us more.
Richard Ball has given us an iMac on which we hope to display ‘slideshows’ of aspects of the Mill’s work and story. These are taking more time to assemble than expected, but we hope to display them next Season.
The Roundhouse stores many interesting but chunky artefacts, some about grinding, some to do with the Tearooms.. This winter we plan (with the Maintenance Team) to sort through and work out how to exhibit them.
In the early days of the Archive, we laboriously recorded and archived everything individually, or bundled items as ‘misc’ when confronted with boxes of varied and unsorted documents. But there is a third way! Working through such a box these days, we now group its contents, then index each group accordingly. This makes the final referencing more relevant and easier to access.
And finally, we noticed recently that our vacuum cleaner was not doing its job. As tidyminded archivists, we felt that this needed attention! We took it apart and found the entire system clogged. That big Scots Pine just outside the Gatehouse has a lot to answer for!
Contact emails
Please write to the person most able to help with your enquiry.
Membership: Captain Paul Minter: membership@highsalvingtonmilltrust.co.uk
Advertising and editorial: Lucy Brooks Email: lucindafbrooks@outlook.com Phone 07799333267
Group tours outside normal opening times: TBA Email: tours@highsalvingtonmilltrust.co.uk
Volunteering (would you like to join our band of volunteers?): Julie Gaskell enquiries@highsalvingtonmilltrust.co.uk
Book Fair: Richard Nowak. Email: richardenowak@gmail.com
Fete, July 2026: Sam Bisset or Julie Gaskell. Email: summerfete@highsalvingtonwindmill.co.uk
Classic Cars, August 2026. Ann English. Email: car4hsmill@gmail.com OR enquiries@highsalvingtonmilltrust.co.uk
Craft fair 2025: Andy Campbell: andyrcampbell@btinternet.com
General enquiries: enquiries@highsalvingtonmilltrust.co.uk
Contact us on Facebook
| High Salvington Windmill is run entirely by volunteers. We rely on the tremendous goodwill, labour and expertise of every single one of our volunteers. Without them, the Mill could not be preserved in the magnificent condition in which you see it, nor could it maintain consistently low entrance fees for the public, making an afternoon at the Windmill a cost-effective family outing. Children enter free, and non-member adults pay just £1, with an additional £1 for a 30-minute windmill tour led by a knowledgeable guide. |
The Mill’ is edited by Lucy Brooks. 01903 691945. lucindafbrooks@outlook.com
