Bidston Windmill opens to the public again after £120,000 restoration project

Apr 15 2009 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

SIX YEARS after being shut, Bidston Windmill has been restored and is about to re-open to the public.

Around 50 specially invited guests gathered on Bidston Hill on Saturday for the first look inside the historic landmark since £120,000 was spent on repairing it.

The project, funded by Wirral Council, has seen the windmill’s crumbling roof and internal flooring replaced and metal ladders swapped for wooden ones complete with safety rails and non-slip material on each rung.

Rock Ferry Councillor Chris Meaden, a former Mayor of Wirral, performed the opening ceremony.

The windmill once attracted hundreds of visitors every weekend but was closed to the public following concerns about the condition of its roof.

Since then, supporters, led by the Friends of Bidston Hill, have campaigned for funding to restore it to its former glory.

The group’s chairman, Professor Derek Knottenbelt, said the end result could not have been achived without the support of Roger Calvert and Alan Stennard from Wirral Council and Bidston councillor Harry Smith.

He said: “This is an amazing event and represents the culmination of an enormous amount of effort and not inconsiderable sum of money.

“Most of all it generates hope and shows that things can be achieved if you work hard enough. If you ask people what landmark comes to mind when they think of Wirral, they all say Bidston Windmill.”

The brick built tower mill was built in about 1800, to replace the wood peg windmill destroyed by fire.

It was a fully operational mill for 75 years.

Visitors can see the mill’s original features, including cogs which turned the sails 360 degrees, sack hoist and the wallower, the strongest and most important cog.

The names of many former millers are carved on the windmill’s main drive shift.

One reportedly died after drunkenly walking out of the wrong door, colliding with the windmill’s sails and being decapitated.

For more information see www.friendsofbidstonhill.com or the noticeboard at Tam O’Shanter Farm.