Lacey Green Windmill

* NB - These pages contain many photos and could take a while to download on a slow internet connection.

Lacey Green windmill stands on the escarpment of the Chiltern Hills, near Princes Risborough and halfway between High Wycombe and Aylesbury. Since 1971 it has been restored back to working order by members of The Chiltern Society. The 1970 picture below shows the sad condition it had reached. It has been restored to preserve its unique wooden machinery, which probably dates from around 1650, making this the oldest smock windmill in the country.

All the restoration work has been done by volunteers, led by Christopher Wallis, who devised the methods by which the collapsing mill could be straightened, strengthened and made watertight to survive into the future.

2008 OPENING TIMES

In 2008, the windmill will be open to the public from 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm on Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays from Sunday 4th May to Sunday 28th September.

Admission Charges for 2008: Adult £1.50, Child (under 16) 75p.

For further details about visiting the mill, such as access, facilities, location, and travelling,

please look at the Information for Visitors page.

During this annual weekend, which will be on 10th and 11th May in 2008, as many mills as possible will be open and working.

Lacey Green Windmill will be open on the Sunday (11th May) only from 2.30 to 5.30 pm. Weather permitting, we will try to have the sails turning. Obviously we will need some wind, but also a dry day to avoid the sailcloths getting wet. Although the windmill has been restored to working order, due to the age of the wooden machinery in the windmill, we are not able to use the machinery to grind flour.

On Sunday 11th May 2008, we will have two other organisations at the windmill.

Loosley Row and Lacey Green Horticultural Society

Our local Horticultural Society will have a plant stall at the windmill.

Chesham and District Amateur Radio Society

This society are proud to be running an Amateur Radio Station at the windmill,

with the Special Event call sign GB1LGW.

It is hoped and expected to make contact with a number of other special event amateur radio stations at participating mills around Britain, as well as amateurs in other countries.

Please come and visit us to see what we do, and maybe YOU can speak to someone in a far off land.

This is a regular feature at many mills during National Mills Weekend. It increases people's awareness about our heritage of windmills and watermills, and informs people about the activities of Radio Amateurs.

Chesham and District Amateur Radio Society's web site is at C&DARS.

The Radio Groups participating are co-ordinated by the Denby Dale Radio Club in Yorkshire. Their website information on National Mills Weekend, which will include a list of participating mills is at G4CDD.

We will be pleased to welcome these two organisations to Lacey Green Windmill. As their activities will be outside, with minimal cover, we hope for fine weather which we will need to turn the windmill sails.

For further information on National Mills Weekend for previous years at Lacey Green Windmill, click on Special Events

The weekend is coordinated by the Mills Section of SPAB (Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings). For their information on National Mills Weekend click on: SPAB - Mills Section

Windmills in Buckinghamshire on National Mills Weekend - 10th and 11th May 2008

There may be some reports in the press which state that Lacey Green is the only windmill planning to have its sails turning on Sunday 11th May. This is not correct as Quainton windmill will hope to be milling and producing flour on that morning as they have now been doing for some time. Lacey Green is the only windmill planning to have its sails turning in the Chilterns, but as always, this strictly depends on the weather at the time.

Unfortunately, one publication we asked to include our details for opening during National Mills Weekend, printed the wrong date, stating that we would be open on Wednesday 7th May. This was then copied into at least one other magazine and a couple of websites. We arranged for corrections to be made to the dates shown wherever we knew it was wrong. If you had a wasted journey to see the windmill open, please come back and see us another day.

This programme was due to visit the windmill on Sunday 6th April 2008. The Treasure Quest started by going to Buckingham instead of Princes Risborough, so did not have time to visit Lacey Green Windmill, and spoke to us on the telephone instead. The team subsequently drove down to Aylesbury and circled around Lacey Green visiting Great Missenden, Bradenham and travelling through Princes Risborough on their way to Stoke Mandeville. The last clue would have brought them back to Askett, near Princes Risborough. Earlier that morning we had about 3 inches of snow as can be seen on this photo taken at 9.30.

A new page was added to this website on 17th February which gives brief details of many places which open to visitors in the Chilterns. This is to coincide with a new leaflet published by The Chiltern Society entitled 'Your Chilterns', which details the three properties that the society opens. The leaflet also has details of the Society's 28 footpath maps of the Chilterns, with a map showing their coverage, the map also shows 45 places to visit. Details of a total of 65 places to visit are available here: Visitor Attractions in the Chilterns

A local map showing routes to Lacey Green Windmill has now been added to the Information for Visitors page of this web site. The travel information for Road, Bus, Train, and Foot access has also been updated. The Map, Road Travel, Bus/Train/Foot Travel information are also all available as 3 pdf pages, suitable for printing. For all these, click on: Information for Visitors

In 2008, Brill Windmill is now opening to the public again, after it was closed for 2007.

It has been decided that Admission Fees will have to be increased for 2008. It will be the first increase since 2001, but it is always our intention to ensure that the windmill will always be a reasonably affordable place to visit. As stated in the box above, the fees will be £1.50 for an adult, and 75p for a child under the age of 16.

Christopher Wallis died on 10th May 2006 after a short illness. Lacey Green Windmill only stands today because of his passion for historic buildings, and mills in particular. Since 1971 he was the driving force behind the many volunteers that between them gave thousands of hours of their time to restore the windmill.

After starting the restoration at Lacey Green, Christopher left his work as a Civil Engineer. He then devoted his engineering and carpentry skills to restoring many other historic buildings across the country.

His everlasting enthusiasm has been instrumental in encouraging others to take up restoration work. The mere fact of hearing Christopher's strong opinions, or seeing the work that he has achieved, has led many more people to appreciate the vital importance of preserving historic buildings in our landscape.

This photograph shows Christopher Wallis at an event in October 2005 which marked the 40th Anniversary of the founding of The Chiltern Society at The Guildhall in High Wycombe. The area of the Chiltern Hills was always a special place to Christopher, where he and his wife Barbara chose to live and bring up their family.

Within the week following Christopher's death, six members of his family visited the windmill.

Christopher Wallis Memorial Fund

Christopher's family have requested that any donations in his memory should be sent to the Chiltern Open Air Museum, Newland Park, Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, HP8 4AB.

Cheques should be payable to Chiltern Open Air Museum Ltd.

Please write Christopher Wallis Memorial Fund on back of cheque.

For more details of the Chiltern Open Air Museum, see their website:

www.coam.org.uk (This link is set to open in a new window)

CONTACT

This web site has been produced by Michael Hardy, Honorary Secretary of Lacey Green Windmill Restoration Committee. You can contact me as follows:

E-mail: contact@laceygreenwindmill.org.uk

Telephone: 01844 275871


1910	1970	1986