The Windmills of my Mind

After Thursday's shenanigans, we spent Friday sorting a few tasks out. Jon did the online check-in for our flights, watered the houseplants and shopped around for new boiler insurance whilst I submitted a trading application for a festival & photographed and uploaded some listings to eBay.

After a few days of sunshine and mild temperatures, Winter had returned with an arctic chill, ominously dark skies and hail.

I wore my Lucky Brand dungarees with my Dilli Grey velvet Kantha jacket & Lotta from Stockholm boots (all bought secondhand). 

Once again, we had a guest for lunch. He'd just finished his first bowl and, as always, managed to get gravy all over his face!

After lunch, I had a blog catch-up and cleaned the bathroom. 

Jon nipped out to deliver some musical gear he'd sold to a mate. He wore the chartreuse wool White Stuff hat - sans pompom - we'd found on Wednesday's charity shopping spree which toned wonderfully with his FabIndia wool muffler & the Welsh wool cardi he'd bought on Sunday morning's visit to the clearance chazza. We spent the evening with rum, cola, the Antiques Roadtrip & The Apprentice on catch-up.

Saturday morning started with tea in bed, delivered by Lord Jon. After veggie sausage and egg sandwiches I had a tidy-up in the Kinky Shed & wrapped my eBay parcels. The weather was blustery and wet but we braved the cold and went on a forty-minute walk around the block.

The area of Walsall in which we live, Highgate, is on a hill at the top of the town and Highgate Windmill which is Grade II listed, stands on the lane behind our house. Built in 1770, the windmill is unique in the borough, the building beside it is the old miller's cottage, built at around the same time. The tower has a slight taper until the later cylindrical portion is reached; it is roughly five storeys, approximately 50 feet tall with a crenellated top, which was a later addition.

Source

Can you see Stonecroft and our garden?  It's the white house and the grounds leading down to the V in the road. This aerial photograph was taken in 1938. Highgate Windmill is to the left of the picture and the building with the tower behind us is the also derelict Highgate Brewery.

Highgate Windmill came up for sale in 1828. It was worked from 1835 to 1841, and in 1841 was purchased by Moses Eyland, the founder of a Walsall buckle factory. His son Charles who was mayor of Walsall from 1857 – 1858 inherited the property, living in Hope Cottage, which stood in its own grounds adjoining the mill. Hope Cottage was nothing like a cottage, a grand Italiante mansion demolished in 1984 to make way for flats - an absolute crime - we were all devastated to see it go.

Hope Cottage (Source)

The mill fell into disuse between 1864 and 1868. Eyland removed the mill machinery and, appreciating the views that could be obtained from the top storey of the tower, he rebuilt, raised and furnished the top room, fitting a fireplace and laying a carpet. To aid his viewing he arranged a mirror on the camera obscura principle so that the four compass directions could be seen in one glass.

In 1890, Charles Eyland died, and the mill passed to his son, also Charles, who moved into Hope Cottage with his family. In around 1919, the tower was struck by lightning, knocking down a piece of the parapet. One evening, several men arrived claiming they had been asked to repair the roof. The men were allowed to work and stripped the roof of the lead and stole it. Deprived of its protective covering, the roof sprang a leak and the inside walls were marked, however, the building remained stable. On the death of Charles in 1925, the mill was bought by a local factory owner, George Skidmore, who had for many years been interested in astronomy and supervised the rebuilding of the tower, re-pointing the brickwork and raising the parapet by approximately 2 feet (1 m) and adding to the crenellations, so that it could be converted into an astronomical observatory. The floors were relaid with concrete on the oak beams, intending the construction to be more solid than before, and new stairs were built. Skidmore then installed a large equatorial refracting telescope, which consisted of a lens, viewfinder, and a clockwork motor drive whereby it was possible to set the telescope on any star and ensure that it would be followed in its course across the heavens.

During World War II, Highgate Windmill's commanding position made it the ideal location for use as an observation post by local Air Raid Patrol wardens, and for years it was manned by them every night. By the 1960s, the mill had fallen into disrepair. The elderly sisters who lived in the old miller's cottage died a few years ago leaving behind a colony of cats, fed by a neighbour (we think both Frank & Cat might have been/are part of the colony). It has recently sold but HERE'S the sale details and a virtual tour if you're interested. What a fabulous project - and you get us as neighbours! 

When we got back I discovered a parcel in the postbox, a beautifully illustrated secondhand book I'd ordered on the recommendation of a Facebook reader, Jos from The Netherlands, after I'd shared a photo of the Washington Irving blue plaque Mikki & I spotted when we were in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago. £2.39 including postage! My friend Sheila sent me a link for a free download of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow which I saw at the cinema on its release but books are nearly always better, aren't they?

I love how my wardrobe constantly evolves. A few days ago I didn't even know this hat existed until I discovered it in a charity shop. It breathes new life into the vintage Elgee coat (which once belonged to Liz) which I wore on repeat last Winter and picks up the rusty orange tones in my Kharibu dress.

I whizzed around the lounge with a dustpan & brush, a mop and a duster as it hadn't been touched in weeks then photographed and listed a few more accessories on eBay.

After tea, which was the rest of the cauliflower & leek mornay I'd made the previous day along with half a vintage Cheddar & onion quiche, we watched A Call To Spy, an excellent female-focussed true story of British WWII tradecraft.

As it had done for most of the night, the rain was lashing down when I got up on Sunday morning to make tea and to feed Stephen. I lay in bed and read getting up just before 9am to have breakfast in front of the Sophie Raworth Show but lost interest after the David Lammy interview and went upstairs to get dressed.

With a brief respite from the rain, I dashed outside for an outfit photo. A gloomy & grey day called for a bit of sparkle so I wore my skinny sequin scarf with the 1960s Ayesha Davar cheesecloth dress I bought from eBay last year. Liz bought me the Accessorize scarf for my 30th birthday and, as I'll be 56 in December, it's now officially vintage!

Jon had sorted out the utility room in the week and along with my tidying of the Kinky Shed, we had a sizeable bag of donations to hand over at the clearance charity shop. Generous donations always lead to good charity shop karma and we came back loaded down. For the stockroom we bought a Laura Ashley wool & cashmere overcoat, a 1980s Rodeo ski suit, some 1990s Patrick Cox Wannabes, a ridiculous 1980s Burton fruit print waistcoat, a wool & cashmere tank top from Linea, a 1970s green cotton midi skirt by Match Set, a hand-finished all wool Jaeger jacket and a 1970s British-made leisure shirt by Panache.

Look at those boots! When I first started blogging in 2009 almost everyone was obsessed with Irregular Choice shoes which I considered fussy, plastic-y and unattractive but I've made an exception for these suede cowboy boots with metallic angled heels, I love them! The quality of these organic cotton black cropped cargo trousers stood out a mile from the seven-foot-long rack of fast fashion rejects. The label rang a bell and back home when I looked it up, I discovered that Baukjen had been named Leading Green Fashion Brand at the United Nations Global Climate Action Awards in 2021. At £3 they're three per cent of the £99 retail price.

Sunday rolls around so quickly, it doesn't seem like a week since I was photographing our charity shop finds and looking forward to The Great Pottery Throwdown. After which we'll be gorging on season 3 of the US psychological cop thriller, The Sinner - we loved seasons 1&2 when they aired on BBC4.

See you soon!