The cache is a 35mm film canister. You can see the mill across the
field from the cache site.
There has been a mill 550 feet up on Barham Down since the first
was built in the 13th century. The accounts for 1324 - 1325 show
the miller paying 20 quarters of grain as his fee for grinding.
Sixty years later when the Black Death has passed, things are not
so good and Peter the Miller fled owing 14d (about £0.06). At that
time a new millstone cost £1 12s 4d (£1.62) with an additional 2s
0d (£0.10) being charged for setting. 24lbs of canvas for the sails
cost 4s 7d (£0.23). The windmill is first recorded on a map in
1596. The last mill (in the photo) was constructed in 1835 by John
Holman of Canterbury. It ceased to grind corn in the 1930s. The
mill was featured in a 1958 television broadcast with the old
miller Mr A. Kirby and his wife. It also featured prominently in
the story line of the 1955 film "Raising a Riot" staring Kenneth
Moore. It burned down whilst being renovated by Kent County Coucil
in 1970. Only its base remains now as part of a converted dwelling
.
This photo is of the last surviving machinery from the mill that
is now in the village of Barham (but a long way from the cache)
Congratulations to the ECBs for FTF!
If anybody would like to expand this series, Email "Eastry Cache
Bandits" so that they can inform you of the next number in the
series to avoid duplication, and include a variation of this
sentence in your cache description.
A number of Cahers miss the fact that the mill building is still
there (as a conversion)... look well into the distance!