You may have seen this imposing building during your travels in the Great Haseley area of Oxfordshire. Sadly, it has fallen into neglect and the years have taken their toll. A major restoration project is now underway, aiming to return this historic building to its former glory. Follow the progress of the restoration in our blog....


The Restoration Team

Friday 10 May 2013

National Mills Weekend 11th-12th May - Mill Open on Sunday!

Although not yet normally open to the public, Great Haseley windmill will be open on Sunday 12th May, from 11am until 5pm. So come along for a rare chance to look around the mill and see the progress made with the restoration. There will be someone around from the restoration team, to answer any questions you may have.

Access is from Great Haseley, with a public footpath leading from Back Way right to the mill.

Click the link below for the National Mills Weekend website - with links to other mills open in your area....

http://www.nationalmillsweekend.co.uk/pages_wind/haseley.html

Wednesday 8 May 2013

Stoop and build 'em up

So, the next stage is upon us; relocating the cap to the mill and rebuilding there, in preparation for hoisting onto the tower. Luckily, the weather has been fine and we have made lots of progress in the last couple of weeks.

The main cap frame timbers arrive!

The cap circle already laid out on blocks (the blocks were made from the old sail stock - you can see how badly decayed it was down the middle)

The shears offloaded

The frame and fan booms assembled

Next we raised the lower finial section with a tripod - ready to receive the cap ribs...

Hoisting the finial

First ribs going in

The more you add, the stronger it gets!

Errr, how do I get down


With all the ribs fitted, and the ring purlin attached. Very aesthetically pleasing.
After that, with the storm hatch and fan door areas reassembled, we began boarding out the cap. Some of the boards were salvaged from the previous cap, probably enough to cover about one half. We will use new douglas fir boards to complete.