Tag: Heage Windmill needs Volunteers

Six Sails On

Photo by Andrew Evans of f22 Aerial Images

Heage Windmill is looking more like herself again as the two new sails were hoisted into position on the morning of the 6th November.

The weather was calm which was perfect for the task.

These two sails were assembled by the maintenance team under the skilful leadership of David Land, the Maintenance Manager.

 

The project has taken approximately 750 hours of volunteer labour.

Nicholls Engineering of Heage were on site helping the team both when the old sails were removed and when the two new ones were attached.

The firm have great experience in engineering projects and have worked on Heage Windmill before, so sincere thanks are extended to them.

Constructional Timber of Barnsley supplied and delivered the laminated pieces of wood (84 in total) for the sails.

These arrived at Heage Windmill back in the spring and the team have spent the summer assembling the new sails.

This included coating all the pieces with sealer followed by undercoating and glossing – 2 coats of each. The shutters were removed from the old sails, washed, repainted and transferred to the new ones.

Alan Eccleston, Chair of the Trust, said that the Trustees wished to thank the dedicated team of volunteers who have worked tirelessly to make this possible.

Heage Windmill needs Volunteers

Would you like to be a Trustee or Friend of the windmill?

Since Heage Windmill was restored and opened to the public in 2000, it has become a major tourist attraction, attracting around 6000 visitors per year.

The mill is operated as a Charitable Trust and, to keep her operating, we require two groups of volunteers: The Trustees and The Friends.  The Trustees cover the overall necessary legal management whilst The Friends, a group of volunteers coming from assorted disciplines, actually maintain and operate the mill.  This stalwart band has been essential to the machinery restoration, serve as tour guides, serve at the shop and visitor centre, and help run education and social  activities.

With the passage of time, due to age, illness and moving away of some our initial  key  persons, we are in seeking some new recruits in both areas.  So, we are appealing to talented persons,  friends, volunteers and maybe past visitors, to come forward to offer your hidden, or not so hidden, talents to participate in our activities.

The Trustees have a  key role of  ensuring conformity to the Charity Commission’s requirements (including financial matters), planning and managing the development of the site, and ensuring that  Health & Safety criteria are maintained for both staff and visitors. Candidates must be over 18 years of age.  Some understanding of business skills, such as tourism, IT, finance or publicity is helpful but not essential.  What IS essential is your enthusiasm, to ensure our wonderful mill thrives.

The Friends, who actually operate the mill, need some more friendly folk, who will  be trained to be guides or shop workers or who might bring their own already developed maintenance skills and adapt them to the needs of the mill and the surrounds. From these posts it is then possible to move on to became an approved miller.

If you are interested, please email us here or telephone Alan Gifford on 01283 702299