Nutley Windmill Report
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Uckfield & District Preservation Society Reg. Charity No: 1102573 NEWSLETTER Chairman: Bob Bonnett, Tudor Views, Ringles Cross, Uckfield TN22 1HB Tel. 01825 762341 General Secretary: Adrian Pearce, The Spinney, Blackboys TN22 5HD Tel. 01825 890268 e-mail: [email protected] Volume 16 Issue 2 May 2007 Chairman’s Address interested in taking on this essential role (either singly or in a shared capacity), would they please contact Mick Harker To save time at the AGM, I and other members write our or any other member of the Local History Sub-Committee annual reports for this newsletter. Having this information as soon as possible. before the meeting, why would anyone want to attend? In an Editor effort to attract more members to the meeting, I will give my report then. I promise that it will not be a long one. Nutley Windmill In the last newsletter I asked for members’ comments on how they would like the newsletter to develop in the future. Before anything I must thank everybody who has helped One letter came flooding in, what we didn't get in quantity we at the Mill this year, and in particular David and Sarah did have in quality. The very good advice given, I know, will Berrecloth , who are leaving our team of open day helpers after be acted upon by our Editor. eight years. They have greatly improved the organisation of the After many years as our Programme Secretary Janet gift shop with their homemade display boxes and David has Hardy has decided to stand down. Each year Janet has found regularly introduced both the Mill and the Society to visitors on wonderful speakers to entertain and inform us on numerous and their arrival in the barn, thereby increasing our income. Sarah's varied subjects. Janet has also found interesting and diverse presence behind the sales counter expertly selling gift items and places for us to visit each summer. My personal thanks to her collecting donations will also be missed. I trust they will still be for increasing my knowledge and interest in subjects that I able to visit us from time to time. knew nothing about and could then take away and `bore for With the normal open days and the special events Britain'. I thank Janet also on behalf of all members who have (National Mills Weekend and Nutley Mill Fete), this was a been to any of the Friday talks or on any of the summer visits.. good year. We were lucky with the weather as we had very few The Local History Group, although one of the most days when it rained heavily. We had 1250 visitors, an increase interesting sections of the Society, needs new committee of 500 over last year. On the Nutley Mill Fete Day we were members. Why not, therefore, go on the committee? They seem able to use a field next door as a car park for the exhibitors and to be a friendly bunch and I understand it will not be at all helpers, for which we thank Mr. and Mrs. R Hunt.Our thanks demanding. Please talk to Mick Harker if you are even slightly also to Mr. L Turner of Kwikspace Portables for the loan of a interested. portable toilet. To finish, please support us at the AGM. Do not forget The Wednesday workdays are still as popular and also to come up to Nutley Mill on one of the open days where enjoyable as ever, as well as the other projects we have "on the Sussex teas can now be purchased. Alternatively, come on a go". This year we have acquired a new set of sailcloths for the Wednesday working day, to see how work is progressing. common sweeps as the old ones (purchased in March 1993) May I welcome five new members to the Society: were falling apart. We have also repainted all the shutters in the Mrs J. Chamberlain-Hare Mr. M.A. Barnard spring shutter sweeps (sails) and replaced the missing ones. Sister Sarah of St. Margaret’s Convent This means that we now have a mill with a complete set of Mr. B. Delves Mrs. D. Coghlin spring shutter sweeps. It must be well over one hundred years Bob Bonnett since she last had a complete set of sails. This will make it more worthwhile for everyone to come to the mill on an open Important Notice day or workday in the right weather see the mill in all her glory. Other projects we have been working on are the continuing As members will have already noted from the Chairman's work on the horse gin and fitting the new gate to the mill field Address, Janet Hardy will shortly be standing down from kindly donated by our neighbours the Hunt family. These are her present position as Programme Secretary. Both Janet, just a couple of our projects in addition to general works in the and, before her, June Muggridge, have served the Society field such as grass and hedge cutting. faithfully for many years in this position and, without their Last year we also had stalls at the Sussex Wildlife Trust efforts it would have been impossible for our series of local Fete at Plovers Meadow Blackboys and at the Nutley Fete as history meetings and outings to have continued. At the well as introducing ourselves to the Nutley Local History moment we are looking for another member (or possibly Society, some of whose members are helping us on open days. two members sharing the responsibility) to "take over the Finally, we enjoyed "singing along" at a musical evening reins" from Janet. This would also involve coming on to our organised by Horsham Methodist Church, which again helped Local History History Sub-Committee and attending its raise funds for us. meetings, but as these only take place every other month, Robert Pike when all the necessary business is done in a couple of hours, [email protected] this is not too onerous an extra responsibility. If anybody is Page 2 Uckfield and District Preservation Society Bridge Cottage Heritage Centre it appears, would considerably detract from the town's appearance. High density housing could lead to late Victorian It has been an exciting and positive year for Bridge conditions. At the moment large and high commercial buildings Cottage. We now have plans, developed by our architects WAS are going up on the industrial estate. Planning applications for and conservation advisor David Martin, being considered for house conversions and extensions tend to reduce garage and off planning permission and listed building consent. The plans, road parking space, increase the population density and which have been made public, include removing some later therefore the number of cars stored on the roads. partitions and ceilings. This will allow the main area of the first The improved rail service from Uckfield is attracting floor to become a large room with much of the atmosphere of more travellers and making car parking in the Station area even the mediaeval hall. An extra lean-to on the back will provide worse. If the rail link to Lewes is established, its benefits may space for improved kitchen facilities and a new room can be not be fully realised. At present it is not reasonable to revise the built over the northern lean-to to create a space suitable for traffic arrangements in the town until the rail link situation is storing archives. We also made a decision to include our own resolved. Traffic Authority advice with regard to car parking is plans in with the recent overall plans for redeveloping the area to reduce it, as the more parking space you have the more cars around Bridge Cottage. This move resulted in some controversy you will have parked (the more roads you have the more cars and misunderstandings, but the benefit has been a very large you have, the more people you have the more cars.) This could cost saving in planning fees and has also given our scheme be a part of Government plans to reduce global warming. Work some useful publicity. on the new doctors' surgery does not at the moment appear to Work is continuing on clarifying the future use of the be happening. The latest Council Tax bills seem to indicate that building, Weddings and other civil ceremonies could generate Uckfield has the highest levels in the Wealden area. useful income but this approach raises a wide range of issues The Society was represented at the ‘Vision for Uckfield’ from marketing to VAT. We have been lucky to secure expert event held in the Civic Centre on 27th March, about 50 people advice at very low cost through the local development agency attending. Five teams of six people including architects, EDEAL to find the best ways of tackling these issues. Once the councillors and town residents then set about redesigning the planning permissions are given, work can be costed and we can town centre. No budgetary or planning restrictions were to be make an application for a lottery grant to fund the building considered. After 6 hours, including a brief walk around the work. town (for the benefit of architects who had never been to We are involving as many groups as possible in our plans Uckfield before) and lunch, large plans and explanatory notes for Bridge Cottage. The Uckfield Festival Association held were drawn up. At 4 o'clock an appraisal of all the plans was their AGM there in November and despite the cold waether it made. It was interesting to find that the independent teams all was their best attended AGM for a long time! The Twinning had several common themes, in particular that Uckfield has no Association held a talk one evening at Bridge Cottage and the town centre and that one should be created around a prominent County Council has used the venue for the launch of a poetry town hall situated at the top of Luxford Field in open park area event.