New Mill is a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

post mill at

Cross in Hand Cross-in-Hand is a small village outside Heathfield town to its west, in the Wealden District situated in East Sussex, England. It is occasionally referred to as Isenhurst. The village Cross-in-Hand is situated at the junction the A267 ru ...

near Heathfield,

East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It was the last

windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...

working commercially by wind in Sussex, ceasing work by wind in 1969 when a

stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

broke.

History

New Mill was built at Mount Ephraim, Framfield in the early 19th century. In 1855, it was moved to a site some ¼ mile (400 m) south west of its current position. The move was done by Samuel Medhurst, the

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. The town is the administrative centre of the wider Lewes (district), district of the same name. It lies on the River Ouse, Sussex, River Ouse at the point where the river cuts through the Sou ...

millwright A millwright is a craftsman or skilled tradesman who installs, dismantles, maintains, repairs, reassembles, and moves machinery in factories, power plants, and construction sites. The term ''millwright'' (also known as ''industrial mechanic'') ...

. In 1868, it was moved again to its current position, joining another windmill which became known as the Old Mill. Medhurst was also responsible for this move. The mill was working until 1969, when a stock broke. Milling continued by auxiliary power in an adjoining building until 1971. The mill is currently under restoration. In August 2014, concerns were raised about the condition of the mill, which is owned by brothers Brian and Geoff Newnham. Following inspection by a

in 2015, a

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...

appeal was launched to raise £3,000 for emergency repairs to the trestle. When the appeal closed on 8 June, £1,654 had been raised. The

Mills Archive The Mills Archive was established in 2002 to preserve and protect records of milling heritage and to make them freely available to the public. It is governed by the Mills Archive Trust, which is a charity. It is a nationally accredited archive ser ...

Trust also opened an appeal, allowing people to donate by

cheque A cheque (or check in American English) is a document that orders a bank, building society, or credit union, to pay a specific amount of money from a person's account to the person in whose name the cheque has been issued. The person writing ...

, with the added benefit of being able to increase their donations by 25% via

Gift Aid Gift Aid is a UK tax incentive that enables tax-effective giving by individuals to charities in the United Kingdom. Gift Aid was introduced in the Finance Act 1990 for donations given after 1 October 1990, but was originally limited to cash gi ...

. A total in excess of £7,000 was raised by the two appeals. Initial work to strengthen the trestle was scheduled to be completed in October 2015.

Description

New Mill is a post mill on a two-storey roundhouse. It had four

patent sails Windmills are powered by their sails. Sails are found in different forms, from primitive common sails to the advanced patent sails. Jib sails The jib sail is found in Mediterranean countries and consists of a simple triangle of cloth wound r ...

carried on a

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

windshaft and was winded by a tailpole-mounted

fantail Fantails are small insectivorous songbirds of the genus ''Rhipidura'' in the family Rhipiduridae, native to Australasia, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Most of the species are about long, specialist aerial feeders, and named as "f ...

. When originally built, the fantail was roof-mounted, in a similar manner to that still to be seen at Hogg Hill,

Icklesham Icklesham is a village and civil parish in the Rother District, Rother district of East Sussex, England. The village is located about six miles (10 km) east of Hastings, on the main A259 Hastings to Rye, East Sussex, Rye road. The surround ...

. Medhurst fitted a five-bladed fantail, which was replaced in 1907 by an eight-bladed fantail of diameter by Neve of Heathfield. The mill originally drove two pairs of

millstone Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, used for triturating, crushing or, more specifically, grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs: a s ...

s, driven by a diameter head wheel and diameter tail wheel. Later, another pair was added to the breast, driven by a spur gear arrangement, the spur wheel being diameter. One pair of stones in the breast was removed in 1933. The body of New Mill is long and wide. The mill is high to the roof. The roundhouse is diameter and the main post is square.

Millers

*William Kenward 1855 - *Mrs Kenward - 1882 *Jabez Ashdown 1882 - 1926 *John Newnham 1882 - *John Ashdown 1926 - 1937 *J B Newnham and Son 1937 - 1971 *Sidney Ashdown 1937 - 1971 References for above:-

References

External links

Windmill World
Page on New Mill

History

Description

Millers

References

External links

Further reading