When wet rot was discovered last August in major structural parts of the windmill and a potential cost of around £100,00 had to be faced, it seemed as though all was lost.
However a site meeting of Trustees and Friends took only a few minutes to decide: ‘We will get her repaired’. Fund raising and volunteer inputs brought the costs down to a more manageable £75,000 and the repair work started in November.
Monday, June 6th saw a major event in the repair programme: the six sails, which had been painted and repaired by mill volunteers, were put back on the Grade 2* listed mill.
Work started at about 9.00 am, our volunteers working with, and under, the direction of our millwright Neil Medcalf.
The final sail was put back on shortly after 3.00 pm.
The fan tail is now to be fitted with some quite detailed work needed to connect with the controls and mill stones.
However all this should be completed by the end of June and flour milling will then recommence.
Piers Bostock , Chairman of Heage Windmill Society said: ‘We are delighted to have the six sails back in place in such a short time and would like to thank everyone who has made this possible.’
