Halnaker Windmill......

Halnaker Windmill is a tower mill which stands on Halnaker Hill, Northeast of Chichester in Sussex. The Mill is reached by a public footpath from the north end of Halnaker, where a track follows the line of Stane  Street  before turning west to the hilltop.

The mill,  is a four storey  tower mill  with a sixteen sided beehive cap. The mill was originally hand wound, and later fitted with a fantail, which was not replicated when the mill was restored. The four common sails were originally carried on a wooden windshaft, which was damaged by the 1905 lightning strike, after which  a cast iron windshaft and wooden brake wheel  from a wind sawmill at Punnetts Town were fitted.  The mill worked two pairs of overdrift millstones.

Ha'naker Mill was first mentioned in 1540 as belonging to the manor of "Halfnaked". It was built for the  Duke of Richmond as the feudal mill of the Goodwood  Estate. The surviving mill is thought to date from the 1740s and is known to have been standing c.1780. Halnaker Mill was working until struck by lightning in 1905, damaging the sails and windshaft. The derelict mill was restored in 1934 by Neve's, the  Heathfield Millwrights as a memorial to the wife of Sir William Bird. Further repair work was done in 1954 by E Hole and Sons, The Burgess Hill millwrights.  The mill was again restored in 2004, The mill is currently owned by West Sussex County Council.

I would have to say being up there on  the downs earlier today,  the weather  was, to say the least, invigorating.

The grid reference for the Windmill is :-  SU 920 097

The view is definitely worth the walk.

j.