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THE Easter weekend brought double celebrations for visitors to Heage Windmill.
Not only were they able to take part in seasonal fun, but they also saw the annual re-opening of the historic landmark mill.
Sir Henry Every, Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire, was invited along to officially launch the new season at the windmill, on Saturday, April 3, The mill re-opened to visitors on Good Friday, April 2.
The Lord Leiutenant was joined by Easter character Wosemary Wabbit, who helped bring a sense of Easter fun to the day.
Wosemary was also at the mill on Sunday and Monday. She gave a small chocolate egg to all children who found a coloured egg during the visit to the mill on Easter Sunday and Easter Monday.
The mill has had a bit of a facelift since it closed at the end of October last year for the winter season.
Volunteers from the Friends of Heage Windmill have been working hard to repaint the mill and give it a good spring clean. Some new sails have also been fitted to the mill, and a couple of new stones have also been installed inside the mill to help it grind the flour.
Alan Gifford, secretary of the Heage Windmill Society, said: "After a hard winter's work at the mill – sometimes in quite inclement weather – all the programmed work has been completed, everyone has attended training days and the volunteers are now all excited and ready to show our beautiful working windmill to the visiting public."
The mill, which is accessed off Church Street, Heage, has been open to the public since 2002. Heage Windmill Society acquired the building from Derbyshire County Council in 1997 and restored it so it could be re-opened as a working mill.
It is a rare example of a six-sailed mill in the UK and originally dates from 1797.
(source : Belper News 06/04/2010)