A slice of heaven in Surrey: Britain's oldest windmill is still working, so you can make bread from your own flour

A 17th-century windmill with a three-bedroom converted stable block is for sale.
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Becky Davies6 June 2018

For most of us, the good life is about growing your own fruit and veg, and perhaps keeping some chickens, but what if you could mill your own flour?

Few working windmills have survived the ravages of centuries of British weather and they are rarely available for sale, but the country's oldest working windmill has gone on the market for £800,000, the price of a lovely, but merely one-bedroom, flat in Notting Hill.

Although it stopped being a commercially operating mill in 1996, the windmill in Outwood, just off the M23 in Surrey, also includes a three-bedroom single-storey converted stable block which provides a very comfortable three-bedroom home.

The mill has been on the market for some time, and James Clear, of Robert Leech estate agents, says that there has been a great deal of interest in the property but the grade I listing is deterring some buyers.

The windmill was last used as a working mill in 1996, but is ready to be used again

“We get lots of people interested, all types of people have come to look at it, but the grade I nature of the property does put some of them off. We did have a couple who came to look at it 10 ten times, but the maintenance work required was too much for them.”

He said that although there isn’t a working business at the windmill at the moment, some would-be buyers have been thinking about opening a tea shop at the premises.

The Grade I-listed 39ft mill, with sails spanning 60ft driving the millstones, is built around a 1,000-year-old oak post and the mechanism is so finely made that it can be turned by just one person to grind the grain.

Work began on Outwood Windmill, near Godstone in Surrey, in 1665, as the Great Plague of London raged.

The following year, the owner Thomas Budgen is said to have watched the flames of the Great Fire of London, 25 miles away.

In 1797, another windmill was built alongside it, although it was demolished after collapsing in 1960.

Although the windmill doesn't have accommodation - Jonathan Creek fans, take note - it does have a 1,200 sq ft three-bedroom former stable block with rooms featuring vaulted ceilings, including a triple-aspect living room with French doors to the rear garden.

The house's grounds include a double garage, while the mill has off-road parking for several vehicles, a ticket office, a pond and a children's play area.

The three-bedroom converted stable block in the grounds offers airy, open-plan living

Outwood is a village in the Surrey weald, three miles from Salfords station where trains to Victoria take as little as 43 minutes.

Outwood Windmill is for sale for £800,000 through Robert Leech & Partners.