Bursledon Windmill

Visit this restored 'tower' mill. See and hear its wooden machinery turning.

The other buildings on the site: Chineham Barn, rescued from demolition, houses the ticket office and other visitor facilities. Hiltingbury granary, stores the grain. The pond, to water the farmers horses, has been re-dug in its original location.

Open every Sunday - the Windmill Visit comprises a 9.5 minute film of the windmill grinding flour on a windy day, explaining how the machinery of the mill works and the other buildings on the site.

Followed by...
The Mill tour - All visitors go to the ground floor or operations control room, and look up at the machinery above. You must be 1.2m tall or over, to climb to the stones floor above the machinery. Once on the stones floor you can walk out onto the reefing stage and have a closer look at the cap turning mechanism and the sails ( these are also visible from the ground ). On returning inside you can stand in the stairwell and look up and see the vertical shaft rising through the bin floor and dust floor to its linkage with the windshaft in the cap. Please wear sensible footwear.

Then...
Try grinding flour by hand in the barn using the ancient saddle quern or the medieval rotary quern.

NB Every Sunday we intend that the sails will be turning either by the power of the wind or in very light winds with the help of staff pushing. We will not, however, be milling. Due to Health and Safety and other practical reasons we cannot mill and show visitors round the Windmill at the same time.