High Salvington Windmill: the back story

About High Salvington Windmill: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Brighton Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

High Salvington Windmill stands 320 feet above sea level on the edge of the Downs, looking south over Worthing to the sea. It worked for nearly 150 years, became a tea room, and was restored by the High Salvington Mill Trust, grinding again from 4 April 1991.

High on the northern edge of Worthing, beside Mill Lane, an old road into the town, stands a black wooden windmill with a view over the rooftops to the sea. It is the last of the mills that once served Worthing, and one of the best-loved landmarks of the town.

A mill on the hill

A map printed in 1724 already shows a mill here, and a mill is known to have stood on the site in 1615. The present mill was probably built about 1756, perhaps to replace one lost to fire. It is a post mill: the whole body of the mill turns to face the wind on a single great oak post, 21 feet 6 inches high, whose foot actually stands several inches clear of the ground. The enormous weight is carried by diagonal quarter-bars onto the crossed timbers of the trestle beneath.

Check opening times and trains on the official sites before you travel.

Tea rooms and decline

The mill ground corn for nearly 150 years until it closed in 1897. In 1907–08 its old timber roundhouse was replaced by a concrete one, which served as a tea room well into the 1950s. In 1959 Worthing Borough Council bought the mill for £2,250, and Edwin Hole, millwrights of Burgess Hill, replaced much of its heavy timberwork in the early 1960s.

Saved

A gale in 1976 showed that the mill was in poor health. The High Salvington Mill Trust was set up to restore it completely. During the great storm of 1987 the wind turned its single pair of sails for the first time in decades, even with the brake on. The roundhouse was rebuilt in its original style in 1990, and on 4 April 1991 the mill began grinding again.

Visiting

Volunteers open the mill on set days through the year, and it takes part in National Mills Weekend. Check the opening dates and special events on the mill’s own site before you go.

Our advice: combine the mill with a walk on the Downs towards Cissbury Ring, and time your visit for an open day when the volunteers show how the sails, stones and machinery work.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with High Salvington Windmill: the back story before you go.