Pitstone Windmill
Encyclopedia
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
boundary of Ivinghoe
Ivinghoe
Ivinghoe is a village and civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, close to the border with Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. It is four miles north of Tring and six miles south of Leighton Buzzard, close to the village of Pitstone.The village name is Anglo-Saxon in...
and Pitstone
Pitstone
Pitstone is a village and civil parish within the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, England. It is located at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, about seven miles east of Aylesbury and six miles south of Leighton Buzzard...
in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
. It is thought to have been first built circa 1627 as this date is carved on part of the framework. This is the earliest date to be found on any windmill
Windmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...
in the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
. It should be remembered that such a structure would have had to have frequent repairs made to it, so it is quite possible the mill predates 1627.
The design of the mill is what is known as a post-mill. This means the whole superstructure of the mill rests on one main post. This post arises from ground level through brick and a foundation chamber; the post then acts as a pivot for the timber built structure above with the sails. Consequently, the upper section of the mill and sails could be turned towards the direction of the wind (reinforcements added in the 20th century now prevent the upper section from turning). The mill machine
Machine
A machine manages power to accomplish a task, examples include, a mechanical system, a computing system, an electronic system, and a molecular machine. In common usage, the meaning is that of a device having parts that perform or assist in performing any type of work...
ry in the upper rotating section was reached by a long flight of external steps.
For many hundreds of years grain
Cereal
Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
grown in the two adjoining village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
s was ground at the mill into flour
Flour
Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...
. In 1874 the mill was bought by Adelbert Wellington Brownlow Cust, 3rd Earl Brownlow who owned the nearby Ashridge Estate. He subsequently let it to a local farmer, who ran a successful milling business from the mill.
In 1902 the mill was seriously damaged during an enormous gale, damaging it beyond the price of economic repair. Around 1922 the derelict ruined mill was bought from the Ashridge Estate by a farmer whose land was close to the mill. In 1937 he donated it to the National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
. However, it was not until 1963 that a band of volunteers began to carry out renovations at their own expense. The mill appeared in an episode of The Champions
The Champions
The Champions is a British espionage/science fiction/occult detective fiction adventure series consisting of 30 episodes broadcast on the UK network ITV during 1968–1969, produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment production company...
titled The Invisible Man which was filmed in 1967. In 1970, after an interlude of 68 years, the mill once again ground corn.
Today the windmill is open to the public on Summer Sunday afternoons.