Map showing approximate location of Windmills at Cloves Hill and Smalley Common
In the year 1800 there were two Windmills in Smalley Parish; one, the survivor,
stood at the top of Cloves Hill on the right hand ascending the hill.
It stood on a knoll in a small croft at the top of Coppice Dumble. When first constructed
there is no record, but from the excellent condition of the unexposed timbers, I should
think between 1700 and 1750.
It was a good specimen of the old post mill. The cross beams at the base rested as usual
on external buttresses built outside a circular base of brickwork intended originally no
doubt as a storehouse for corn. The four struts supporting the main post projected though
the sides of the circular base, and rested on the extremities of the cross beams, just as
at the ruinous post mill at West Hallam erected in 1593.
When my grandfather Roe held the mills owing to the steepness of Cloves Hill, the badness
of the road, and the inconvenience of conveying corn there, he brought the windmill into
the valley, and placed it in the field on the north side of the Mill Dam.
Boreas (north wind) however, would not patronize the new situation - it was too sheltered,
and he was compelled at length to re-erect it on its former site where it remained until
its demolition sometime about 1856.
This windmill was a favourite resort of mine in my boyhood, and 'Tom' the miller was one
of the kindest hearted men in the world. At times when the mill was in its quieter moods,
and the din of the machinery and the 'clickety clackety' of the hopper not so loud, Tom
would ask me to read him a chapter of the New Testament which he would reach down from a
shelf and hand to me. Nothing pleased him better, and, seated on a sack, in this way I
spent many a pleasant hour.
I fancy at this period Mr John Holbrook held the mills.
Tom Baguly preceded him but that was before my active life began.
This mill contained two pairs of stones, which before its reconstruction by my grandfather,
revolved in the middle storey under the roof or garret chamber. Owing to the undue height
of the centre of gravity the mill was subject to most violent and dangerous rockings in
stormy weather.
When carried back to its old situation, the stones were placed in the
lowest chamber, and just sufficiently high to allow the sack to fill under the spout.
The sails were covered with tarred cloth after the primitive fashion which was expanded or
rolled up according to the force of the wind.
From the back window of our old house at Smalley Green Farm, a good view might be obtained
of the windmill, and many a time have I stood there and watched the sails in a storm.
Occasionally the brake was applied to take in the canvas when speed was too great; but
one day when it was overtaken by a hurricane, and the brake was of no avail, I saw one of
the sails break off, and away it flew for some distance to my great excitement.
It was not long before I made a personal inspection and congratulated the miller on his
escape. The opposite sail was removed and for a long time afterwards the old mill was left
with only two sails to do the work of four.
The little mound just mentioned on which
the mill stood is foolishly named Cloves Hill in the last map of the Ordnance Survey;
whereas it is but a mere hillock too insignificant to give its name to any thing.
The other windmill (at Smalley Common) which was at work in 1800 was I think erected on
common land before the enclosure by Mr Samuel Abbot who married Lydia daughter of old George
Smedley. Her mother was daughter of William Brown who married a Mary Lovegrove of Kilbourne
and lived at the principal grocer's shop near the church in Smalley.
This windmill was planted near the top of the field above the farm house formerly held by
Mr John Abbot and now by John Hardy, whose new farmstead (now called Smalley Green Farm)
is built in the same field on the site of an old brickyard, from which the bricks were
supplied for the erection of the 'New Row' just below.
The mill was burnt down, and what was fit was removed to Marlpool. One of the charred beams
was to be seen about 40 years ago (say in 1860) as a partition post in the stable erected
for the late Mr John Abbot, and now used by Joseph Martin.
The founder of the mill had a stentorian voice, and on fairly quiet days would keep up a
lively conversation across the valley with old Job Turton of the Green Farm opposite, who
appears to have been similarly endowed, the two friends being quite a quarter of a mile
asunder.
Windmills are now almost among the memory of the past, very few of the old post mills
remain.
A few survivors stand on the uplands in this immediate district, but I know of none further
afield. The only post mill at work in these parts is in Dale Abbey parish near the three
lane ends by 'The Cat and Fiddle'. It is now used chiefly for grinding coarser grain for
feeding pigs etc.
Charles Kerry.
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Smalley Village
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Sources: this contribution was made by Robert Turton and as such, he is the sole copyright holder.
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