Kent mills win top award

The work we have done to protect Kent’s windmills over the last half century won recognition from a leading independent conservation charity.

The Society for Ancient Buildings (SPAB) presented Councillor David Brazier (Deputy Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways &  Waste) with certificate number 81 as 'A record of the Society’s appreciation of zeal in the maintenance of these beautiful structures'. Mr Brazier received the award on 17 September 2010 at Cranbrook Mill, which coincidentally won the very first certificate issued by the mill committee of SPAB in 1935.

We first took windmills into our care in the 1950s when, with the millers gone, there was no one else to protect these landmark buildings. By 1984 we owned eight, ranging from post mills of Chillenden and Stocks at Wittersham to the magnificent smock mill at Cranbrook – the tallest in England.

Windmills are active structures; part building, part machine. No two are quite the same and the jobs that need doing to keep them in good condition and working are many and varied.

Thanks to a Heritage Lottery Grant Kent in 2004, we were able to carry out substantial repairs to seven of them, but the work is never ending. For example, it is time once more to clean off the algae and weatherproof the exterior of Union Mill Cranbrook. Milder winters are good for green mildew, which is a problem for windmills everywhere.

David Brazier thanked SPAB for the recognition and said:
“It would be impossible on a daily basis to look after the mills without the commitment and time of the members of the volunteer groups. The county council is very grateful to these people. They enable us to see and enjoy these (often working) landmarks, which remind us of the time when our daily bread was grown and milled locally”.