Ovenden's Mill or Mockett's Mill is a grade II* listed tower mill

Tower mill

A tower mill is a type of windmill which consists of a brick or stone tower, on top of which sits a roof or cap which can be turned to bring the sails into the wind....

 at Polegate

Polegate

Polegate is a town and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England, United Kingdom. It is located five miles north of the seaside resort of Eastbourne, and is part of the greater area of that town. Although once a railway settlement, its importance as such has now waned with...

, East Sussex

East Sussex

East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 which has been restored and is open to the public.

History

Ovenden's Mill was built in 1817 and was working by wind until 1943. The mill was worked by auxiliary engine, latterly an electric motor, until 1965. By the time the mill stopped working, it was becoming derelict. Eastbourne and District Preservation Trust bough the mill and grounds, and a restoration carried out by E Hole and Sons, the Burgess Hill

Burgess Hill

Burgess Hill is a civil parish and a town primarily located in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England, close to the border with East Sussex, on the edge of the South Downs National Park...

 millwright

Millwright

A millwright is a craftsman or tradesman engaged with the construction and maintenance of machinery.Early millwrights were specialist carpenters who erected machines used in agriculture, food processing and processing lumber and paper...

s. One of the new stocks broke in July 1974, bringing the sail with it. This particular stock was only seven years old. Thompson's, the Alford

Alford, Lincolnshire

- Notable residents :* Captain John Smith who lived in nearby Willoughby* Anne Hutchinson, pioneer settler and religious reformer in the United States* Thomas Paine, who was an excise officer in the town....

 millwrights fitted a replacement stock and two new sails in May 1976. Further restoration work was undertaken in 2004, including the fitting of a cowl

Cowl (oast)

thumb|Cowls on a maltings at [[Ware, Hertfordshire|Ware]], Herts. A Cowl is a device used on a kiln to keep the weather out of, and induce a flow of air through, the kiln...

 to the adjoinging malthouse.

Description

Ovenden's Mill is a four storey brick tower mill with a domed cap winded by a fantail

Windmill fantail

A Fantail is a small windmill mounted at right angles to the sails, at the rear of the windmill, and which turns the cap automatically to bring it into the wind. The fantail was patented in 1745 by Edmund Lee, a blacksmith working at Brockmill Forge near Wigan, England, and perfected on mills...

. There is a stage at first floor level. It had four Patent sails

Windmill sail

Windmills are powered by their sails. Sails are found in different designs, from primitive common sails to the advanced patent sails.-Jib sails:...

 carried on a cast iron

Cast iron

Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...

 Windshaft. The Brake Wheel is wooden. The mill drove two pairs of overdrift millstone

Millstone

Millstones or mill stones are used in windmills and watermills, including tide mills, for grinding wheat or other grains.The type of stone most suitable for making millstones is a siliceous rock called burrstone , an open-textured, porous but tough, fine-grained sandstone, or a silicified,...

s, with a third pair driven underdrift by auxiliary engine. The tower is 45 feet (13.72 m) high to the curb.

Millers

• Joseph Seymour 1817 - 1857
• Mathias Mockett 1857 -
• George Thomas
• Ephraim Ovenden 1918 -
• Albert Ovenden - 1965

References for above:-

Further reading

Online version

External links

• Windmill World Page on Polegate windmill.