FRAMFIELD, BLACKBOYS POST MILL

This mill was originally situated at Glynde, near Lewes, where it was erected in 1807. It was dismantled and moved to Blackboys in 1867 or 1868 by Henry Garnett for Mr Hobden of Sapperton Farm, Heathfield, who had bought it some time prior to the removal for his son Luther John Hobden. Hobden was running the mill in 1874, but in September the following year it was advertised to be let or sold. It remained within the Hobden family, Mrs E. Hobden being given as miller in 1878 while Luther John Hobden is listed again in 1887 and 1890, although in a notice in the Sussex Advertiser in 1888 he had stated that he was giving up the business and "suing William Farrant and others for flour supplied". Mrs R. Hobden is miller in 1895. The Paris family took on the mill in 1896 and were to work it for the remainder of its active life. Among the grinders employed were Solomon Diplock and George Tree. From them it was passed to a firm called Stricklands in 1934.

In common with many others, the mill ceased to produce flour during the First World War. It continued to work commercially milling animal feed, and in fact was one of the last windmills to do so in Sussex. It finally ceased operation on 1st March 1935, the sweep frames being removed three days later by Neves of Heathfield. The Society For The Protection Of Ancient Buildings sought to keep it functioning and in January 1936 instructed the millwright Thomas Hunt of Soham in Cambridgeshire, to contract for repairs, but these proved to be too expensive and no work was undertaken. The mill was demolished in late 1944 or early 1945 as it was considered unsafe and a danger to children who played inside. In fact, it had been sadly mutilated during the war by soldiers who ripped off much of the boarding for use in camouflaging their tanks, the main timbers were fairly sound. The foundations of the brick piers supporting the trestle were still evident in 1978 [but not in 1999...].

The mill was a small one, painted white with a metalled roof and breast and a tarred single storey wooden roundhouse. As at many other Sussex post mills the metalling is added quite late in the mill's active life, several photographs showing it without it. It ended its working days with four spring sweeps, after working for a time with two springs and two commons. On an iron windshaft were mounted a wooden brake wheel and an 8-spoke iron tailwheel in two sections. There were two pairs of stones, one peak and one burr up to about 1915 when the burrs were replaced with peaks on cessation of flour production. A photograph of the interior in the National Monuments Record at Swindon shows a pair of wire machines.

Also See ;

Martin Brunnarius, The Windmills of Sussex". p165

"Around Heathfield in Old Photographs" Alan Gillet and Barry K Russell, Alan Sutton 1990.