Hunsett Mill - History

History

The site has probably been occupied by pumping structures for several centuries, but all existing structures on site date from 1860 or later. Embedded in the stonework of the Mill is a Datestone inscribed HUNSETT 1698 which is presumed to be originating from an earlier mill on the site. The historic mill and the mill keepers house were used for water pumping functions until approximately 1910. Since then the mill has not been used and the internals except for the cap were gutted in the 1950s/ 60s. The Hunsett Mill house has been used over the last decades as a stand alone primary residence and holiday home. Major damage was caused to the sails of the windmill in the Great storm of 1987, which resulted in one of the sails being completely replaced with wood especially shipped all the way from Canada. On 5 May 2007 another storm caused the fan to be torn of the fanstage which was repaired in the summer of 2008.

Between 2008 and 2009, Hunsett Mill was extensively renovated and the Mill Keepers Cottage remodelled based on a design by ACME (architecture), Adams Kara Taylor (structure) and Hoare Lea (Services).Five extensions made to the Cottage in the 1940s and 1950s were demolished and replaced with a single extension at the back of the cottage. In order for the new extension to retreat behind the listed setting of the mill, the new additions to the house are designed as shadows of the existing house. The structure of the new extension is made entirely from solid laminated wood, which is exposed in the interior and clad in charred cedar boards externally. Ground source heat pumps, passive solar heating, independent water well supply and a new treatment plant will make the house almost fully self-sufficient. These works to Mill and Cottage coincided with Flood defence work by the Environment Agency and included the construction of a new earth berm flood defence around the Mill and the Cottage.