Wirral Windmills - Irby Traditional Cache
HazelS: Sorry - always thought this WAS archived!!
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Difficulty:
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Size: 
(small)
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Until about a hundred and fifty years ago, almost every Wirral village - like almost every other village in Britain - had its own mill.
It was a matter of necessity, every community depended on locally grown and milled grain with which to make its bread.
As might be, most of Wirral's mills were windmills, as there were very few watermills due to the fact that there are relatively few rivers large enough to power a mill.
Back in their day, the local mills were regarded as symbols of exploitation and theft. Exploitation because the mills were usually owned by the Lords of the Manor who exercised a monopoly over the grinding of corn, and theft, because millers were notorious for their dishonesty. It was the custom for millers to take their payment in kind from the grain they were grinding and charge way, way above the odds for their flour.
There are five mills still standing in Wirral, and this is the first of an occasional series looking at some of the history behind these and some of the other mills which have since been demolished.
Unusually, Irby Mill was a “Peg” Mill. This was the oldest type of windmill, and consisted of a circular sandstone or brick base about eight to nine feet high surmounted by a box-like wooden structure built round a central post or peg so it could be revolved to bring it into the eye of the wind. This was done by means of an external timber beam which was heaved about as the wind changed. Access to the mill was by means of an external ladder.
Wirral's last two peg mills - at Burton and Irby - were both worked until about a hundred years ago, and demolished in the 1890s.
The demolition of Irby Mill, in 1898, was almost marked by tragedy. The three young men who volunteered to do the job obviously knew nothing about demolition work because they started by extracting bricks from the base. To that, the tixnberwork responded by groaning loudly. Warned by a particularly ominious crack, the trio just managed to scramble clear before the whole structure toppled on to the spot where they had been working moments previously.
Today, all traces of the mill have long since gone, and the only hint that there was once a mill here is the Irby Mill Pub.
Once the Miller’s cottage next to the windmill of Irby Mill, this old sandstone pub has bags of character with small cosy rooms, beams, low ceilings and stone floors.
This cache is not a tricky, or inventive hide, I simply wanted to tell you something about the area that you may not have known about before. A good hint is included as I had trouble with GPS coords, so any advances will be welcome!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ng gur sne raq bs gur pne cnex, hc gur onax, oruvaq vil ntnvafg gur jbbqra srapr.
Treasures
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