Welcome
Welcome to the home page of the Wessex Mills Group. The Group was formed in 2003 as a centre for the milling heritage of Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire. We meet regularly, often in one of our local mills, and we welcome new members and their guests. For membership and other information please find out more about us.
Next meeting
Our next meeting will be a visit to Otterton Mill near Budleigh Salterton in Devon on 9th October at 11am. For more information see our Programme page.
Volunteers needed at Cricklepit Mill
The Devon Wildlife Trust is based at Cricklepit Mill in Exeter, Devon. It opens the mill to the public several times a year and relies on volunteer millers to help with this.
The Trust needs some more volunteers who have experience working in and discussing watermills (part of the work will be talking to visitors about how the machinery works). Volunteers would work a maximum of four milling days a year, plus a training day with the Trust's millwright and potentially a few days maintenance work if possible.
If you are interested, please contact the Visitor Services Officer at mhaines@devonwildlifetrust.org or 01392 260844.
Mill of the month
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This month's featured mill is a derelict tower windmill at Gomeldon, near Winterbourne Gunner in Wiltshire, as painted in watercolour by Karl Wood on 27th August 1932. The mill has no roof, exposing timbers and machinery. Wood was born in 1888 at Kings Newton in Derbyshire but spent most of his adult life in Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. In the late 1920s he painted the "Roving Molly" windmill at Hemswell near Gainsborough. This inspired him to attempt to paint every surviving mill in England, many of which have long since disappeared. Much of his work is held in the collections of Lincolnshire County Council, by whose kind permission this example is reproduced here (object number: LCNUG : 1977/1138). |
