Events
Annual Mill Events
This page lists annual mill events from the point of view of Mill Trust Directors or volunteers responsible for organising or assisting in running them.
Mills Weekend Open Day
Organiser: Secretary/Assistant Secretary invites the radio hams.
National Mills Weekend is promoted by the Mills section of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) and occurs annually on the second weekend of May.
We open on this Sunday which often falls on a regular open day. SPAB encourages mills that are not usually open to the public to open over this weekend and mills that charge for entry to offer free admittance. We do not offer free admittance - mostly due to this normally falling on one of our regular open days - so we do not participate in SPAB's advertising for the event. Worthing & District Amateur Radio Club (WaDARC) are invited to the mill and they operate a special call-sign, GB0HSM, that is only used at the windmill on this day. They reach out to mills around the world and keep track of contacts on a board in the roundhouse. Each participating mill will be hosting their own local amateur radio club who will be broadcasting with their own mill-specific call-signs. The photographs shows mills, and their call-signs, that were contacted in 2014.
Annual General Meeting
Organiser: Company Secretary.
This is usually held at St. Peters Church, Furze Road towards the end of April or in early June. All members are welcome to attend and should receive notification three weeks in advance, A speaker is invited to speak after the business of the meeting is concluded. The meeting is conducted by the Chairman with reports from the Treasurer and Technical Adviser or Maintenance Coordinator. Volunteers are required to make and serve tea/coffee with biscuits and wash up afterwards.
Speaker may need access to projector and screen or may bring own. Bring along adapters and power cable reel.
Annual Summer Fete
Classic Cars Day
Autumn Rural Crafts Fair
Christmas Bonfire Carols
The Christmas "Carols around a Bonfire" event is run every year on a Friday before Christmas, with a collection in favour of the St. Barnabas House and Chestnut Tree House hospices.
The Secretary books the current vicar of St. Peters, a year ahead, or an alternative if he/she is unavailable. Peter Hill has acted as MC in the past. The publicity team advertises the event, to local people only, as the intention is to thank neighbours for their forbearance during the year.
The work team prepares a bonfire near the East hedge, after first cutting out a circle of turf and rolling it up to store safely under the hedge. They hang the strings of external coloured lights from the Long Barn guttering, and if another string is available, the gatehouse guttering. They hang floodlights out of a port side spout floor window of the mill. They will then wind to shine the floodlight towards the bonfire and they may put out floodlights on the field to light up the mill. If winds are strong from the wrong direction then they may need to use a different window to make sure the mill cannot be tail-winded.
Mince pies and hot chocolate are acquired for the kitchen. The carol sheets are currently stored by Jeff Best, who will check and print/staple extra copies, as required. Volunteer money collectors need to be recruited, along with kitchen volunteers, and a couple of volunteers to hand out and collect carol sheets. Hazel Marsden, as Treasurer, currently stores the collection buckets.
After the event, once all the wood has burnt to ash and everything cooled down, a magnet is used to remove any ironware that was attached to the wood used on the fire. The turfs are then carefully replaced. The floodlights and strings of coloured lights are taken down and stored.
