The Old Mill

Outwood Windmill, Britain's oldest working windmill, is Listed Grade 1 by English Heritage. It was built in 1665 by Thomas Budgen of Nutfield, and is what is known as a Post Mill. The whole body, weighing around 25 tons, rotates on a central post made of a single enormous oak tree, to bring the mill round into the wind. The mill is some 39ft high and the sails are 60ft across.

The mill body has two main floors, the top one of which houses the two pairs of French burr millstones, the oak windshaft on which the sails revolve, and the huge brakewheel and tailwheel with their wooden cogs. On the lower floor are the flour bins and the miller's desk, as well as the upper portion of the main post. The mill is at present used to produce flour, only for sale to visitors to the mill, as there is no auxiliary power source in the absence of the wind. The roundhouse at the base of the mill has a hand quern to show the operation of the millstones and which visitors may use to mill flour for themselves. For evening visits, the interior of the mill can be illuminated.

In the grounds there is a play area for small children. The windmill is surrounded by National Trust common land and woodland, where nature walks and picnics can be enjoyed. You may wander freely and enjoy the lovely surroundings.

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