The Heage Windmill visitor experience is now enhanced by a Timeline on display beside the windmill, showing the windmill’s history relative to significant world events.
It will hopefully give visitors an appreciation of the age of our ‘old girl.’
Author: admin
Windmill hosts mill experts
Some 40 international experts on wind and water mills visited the windmill on Thursday, Sept 8th and were very impressed with Derbyshire’s unique, 220-year-old, six sail wind mill, mounted atop her squat stone tower.
All were members of TIMS (The International Molinological Society) with representatives present from 11 countries, some coming from as far away as Japan and the USA. The visit was part of a week-long tour of some 30 mills, mostly in central England, displaying the wide variety to be found in the area.
The International Molinological Society (TIMS) is the only Society which fosters worldwide interest and understanding of wind, water and animal-driven mills.
The sails were turning when they arrived, to be welcomed by John Boucher (himself a member of TIMS) who was a leading light in the restoration of the mill in 2000. He gave a short talk on how the mill had been restored and then the delegates were free to roam the mill to examine the mechanisms for themselves, with a mill guide on each floor to answer any specific questions.
The society members were very impressed and one delegate commented that ours was a ‘most unusual’ windmill, situated in a ‘beautiful location.’
At the conclusion of the visit Lynn Allen, who had organised the arrangement for this visit, was presented with a ‘TIMS’ mug to add to the mill collection. They also bought numerous books about the Mill plus various souvenirs of their visit – so the name ‘Heage’ will be spread around the world!
Classic Bikes… and more!
It was more than just motorbikes when a Classic Bike Rally assembled at Heage windmill on Sunday, September 10th when, in spite of some inclement weather, some 50 machines were on display.
Along with the bikes, we had a couple of 1933 Morgan three wheel cars and even a custom made Mercian racing pedal cycle.
A surprise display was a 1939 wartime dispatch rider’s motor bike, restored and presented by Ralph and Jane Taylor of Nether Heage.
However event organiser for the windmill, Lynn Allen, presented a new award for the event – a Certificate for the Best Bike on Show’, to Graham Walker, who had come on a beautiful 1950’s Norton 19R.
The instigators of the concept of the Windmill rally – Graham Walker and Colin Clemens – told Lynn Allen, event organiser for the windmill: ‘It was always great to come to such a super venue as Heage windmill; everyone is so friendly’.
Despite the weather, many did a tour of the windmill and bought goods from the bric-a brac stall, with all proceeds going to the upkeep of the windmill.
American Vehicles a big hit
A glorious sunny day was lit up even more at Heage Windmill with the presence of many large American cars, hot rods and trucks.
Thanks to all those who brought their monster vehicles, namely members of the East Midlands Hot Rods.
On display were several Chevrolets, Fords and Plymouth models.
The event was well supported with craft stalls, mobile refreshments and, of course, the mills renowned ‘bric a brac’ stall.
A ‘significant’ amount was raised for mill funds.
Many people toured the mill, too; and the mill bill, which had been recovered after being stolen in the break in earlier in the week, attracted a lot of attention.
E Type Jags at Heage Windmill
Our classic windmill was complemented last weekend (August 6th) by a display of classic internal combustion engineering married with classy design in the shape of the E-type.
We were visited by more than 20 models of that truly iconic car – the E Type Jaguar – built between 1961 and 1975.
It was exhilarating to see various versions of these multi coloured darlings of the 1960’s and 70’s roaring up the drive and coming to rest in the inner car park. All these sleek, low profile cars were in superb condition, too.
As Richard Eaton – the Derbyshire & Cheshire E Type Owners Club rep – explains: ‘These are sports cars with true pedigree, based directly on the Le Mans winning D type Jaguars of the 1950s. I don’t believe that any other car has made such an impact on the motoring world; even today they remain eye catching and tremendous fun to drive.’
Thanks to Richard for organising this visit. Hopefully we’ll see you again next year!
Flowers at the Mill
Once again, Heage Windmill supported the local church – St. Luke’s – in their annual flower festival, to celebrate the onset (somewhat belatedly this year!) of summer.
The church was festooned with floral displays as the windmill.
Cobweb Closes the Windmill
The now traditional spinning of a spiders web at Heage windmill took place in lovely sunny conditions at Heage on the windmill’s last day of opening.
Friends of the mill and visitors were all guided by head ‘spider’ Lynn Allen along with her assistant, Jack Evans, into the intricacies of making a web from very stretchy elastic and then carrying and laying it on the field adjacent to the 220-year-old windmill.
This year a good number of adults turned up as well as some children proving that this is an event for people of all ages.
The windmill closed for the winter at 4-00pm on the 29th October and re-opens on 31st March 2018.
In spite of her slumbers the Mill will wake up from time to time as Flour will be on sale at the mill, as available, on the second Saturday of each month, from November until March, from 10-00am until 1-00 pm.
The Mill will also be open for Santa Day on December 3rd when we welcome Santa to use it as his grotto. More details will follow on this event at a later date.
Alan Gifford
Trustee HWS
The windmill will be open during 2017 (11-00am to 4-00pm) every weekend from
April 1st until the end of October.
Santa Day Great Success
Over 400 visitors came to the windmill to enjoy Santa Day last Sunday, December 3rd.
After a very cold week the day dawned cloudy but dry and relatively mild which pleased our Santa who was glad to get away from all that snow up in Lapland.
Santa arrived on a motorised sledge, (kindly loaned by Amber Valley Rotary Club) and was greeted by a crowd of happy and excited youngsters. He soon made himself comfortable in his grotto on the ground floor of the windmill and during his visit saw over 100 children, each of whom received a specially wrapped present from him.
All our visitors enjoyed the entertainments and refreshments available in the nearby marquee and on site, whilst they waited their turn to meet Father Christmas.
To pass the time while waiting, there were various games to play, raffles, Hug a Husky and food, including the very popular hot food van providing a range of things according to taste.
Angela Ward, Chair of the Friends of the Windmill said: ‘It’s been a great day. Every one of our volunteers has worked hard to make it a success and, above all, the profits will all go to keeping the windmill working. It was also good to see so many people on site enjoying themselves.’
Classic Bike Day – Great Success
At what is now a cherished annual event, well over 100 classic motor bikes made Heage Windmill their destination on Sunday 21st May.
On a bright if largely cloudy day, visitors poured in to see, touch, snap and discuss the bikes, which were of all types, ranging from tourers to out and out racers.
There were some well known makes such as BSA , Honda, Royal Enfield but notable were a trio of beautiful Vincents, some Harley Davidsons, an MV Augusta and there was even a rare Russian machine on display.
At one point, David Hitchcock from Alvaston appeared on an unusual bike: a genuine US Secret Service Motorcade Support Vehicle. In his shades and dark leathers, he replicated the cyborg villain from Terminator 2!
There were a number of back up stalls, including a Tombola and a selection of lovely jewellery, whilst refreshments were in high demand.
All in all the day was a pronounced success, with great feedback from all involved. All profits will go into keeping the mill working and improving the facilities.
Vintage Cars light up National Mills Weekend
The Veteran Car Club made it a memorable National Mills weekend, organised by the Society for Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), and supported by Heage Windmill, who welcomed large numbers of visitors on both Saturday and Sunday.
There were 27 cars from the Veteran Car Club, whose members owned cars dating from the 1930s and earlier.
The oldest car was a 1924 Vauxhall 30-98 Tourer whilst the ‘newest’ was a Riley 12/4, dating from 1937.
The cars arrived and departed throughout the day and attracted much attention from mill visitors.
In a corner of the site the Nunsfield Radio Club set up a mobile radio station and made a total of 114 contacts with places as far away as eastern Russia and the United States. They also managed to contact 14 similar clubs who were based at other wind and water mills in this country, although radio air conditions did not favour local contacts.
