Site overview
Champion's Mill, now known as The Old Mill, was a smock windmill at Wisborough Green in West Sussex. It was built about 1820 as a wind-powered corn mill on a stone base. The mill worked until 1910, when wind damage led to the loss of the upper part.
The remaining structure was converted into a house after 1960. The survival consists of the original octagonal two-storey stone base with red brick dressings and the lower part of the smock, now weatherboarded and adapted for domestic use.
Map
History
Champion's Mill was built at Wisborough Green in about 1820 as a smock windmill on a stone base. It was a wind-powered corn mill with a white tapering weatherboarded smock, a cap carrying the sails and sweeps with a diameter of around 70 feet. The mill continued working until 1910.
In that year wind damage affected the cap and sails, and the upper portion was later demolished. The remaining lower structure became a derelict mill base before its later reuse. After 1960 the surviving fabric was converted into a house.
The present building, known as The Old Mill, retains the original octagonal base of two storeys, built of Wealden sandstone with red brick dressings, together with the lower part of the smock forming an additional weatherboarded storey. A modern projecting cornice finishes the altered structure.
Timeline
Working life ended
Converted to a house
Grade II listing
Sources and records
Wisborough Green Parish Council windmills history
Sussex Mills Group windmill gazetteer
Mills Archive catalogue entry
Historic England Archive feature on Emilie Montgomery Gardner
List of windmills in West Sussex