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July 2024, on the Wind Engine

TALES FROM THE HILLS

(Ashmansworth and Crux Easton)

It was good to be reminded in the Magazine last month of the effort put in by the Hill sisters, Carol O’Shaughnessy and Lyn Peet, ably assisted by John Christmas and the Hampshire Mills Group, to organise the repairs to the nineteenth century Wind Engine, and to the much older Well and Well House, at Crux Easton.

The metal tower with its sails, virtually abandoned for the best part of a century, was bound to cost a lot to fix. As far back as the 1960s two people on a motorcycle had already turned up to inspect it. They came from something like the ‘Rural Affairs Department’ at Reading University, and they were impressed even then by the historical importance of the structure.

Any village, looking for an iconic image, could hardly do better than the picture created by the Tower and the Well House, standing together in a meadow.

Because of the sums involved, Carol and the team had the monumental task of persuading the Heritage Lottery Fund to cough up most of the money required. Anyone who has written a bid for Lottery money will know about that. The restoration must be done properly. Any replacement parts must be made to original specifications; and the Fund always demands evidence that the applicants themselves and their supporters are making a substantial contribution of some kind to the project.

Carol and Lyn could certainly demonstrate that. Carol’s father had bought Crux Easton Farm, which included Well Meadow with its wind engine, in 1940. When she moved back to the farmhouse in the 1980s she became involved in everything local, running the scouts down at Woolton Hill, serving on the parochial church council and the parish council up here, organising arts and crafts at Westridge Studio and, with Lyn, driving this restoration project.

On open days at the Well House she was usually there in person, glad to meet people, and ready to talk about it, with obvious enjoyment; in fact, it was a pleasure going there for the welcome you received.

Carol has her place in the churchyard for us to remember her; but the restored Tower with its sails, and the Well House, are very visible reminders of her and the legacy she left us.

Agricola, July 2024

Ashmansworth Parish Council July 2024, on the Wind Engine