The corn mill is to be opened to the public on Sundays throughout the Summer, and on Bank Holiday Monday, from 2.30pm to 5.30pm. Entrance is free to volunteer card holders.
The “Ivinghoe” windmill which is actually in the parish of Pitstone, dates from at least 1627 when a carpenter’s mark was cut into the timber structure. It is the earliest surviving mill of its type in England. A post mill which enables it to be turned into the direction of the prevailing wind. The painting by De Wint dates from the early 1800’s and pre-dates the rebuilding of 1895. The mill then operated for a further seven years before it was severely damaged by a storm in 1902, and it has remained idle ever since. A local Pitstone landowner offered it to the National Trust in 1937 in a parlous state, and it was not until the formation of the Pitstone Windmill Restoration Committee in 1963 that sufficient funds and manpower were arranged for a full restoration to take place. The remarkable piece of engineering was returned to it’s former glory in 1967. An information leaflet is available at the Ashridge Visitor Centre, together with a new publication on the history of the mill – a book by Roger and Caroline Hillier called Pitstone Windmill ( The Rescue of an Ancient Landmark), priced at £8.
