Hawridge Windmill

Hawridge Windmill (also known as Cholesbury Windmill) is a tower mill constructed in 1883 on the site of an earlier smock mill. The windmill ceased operation in 1912 and was used as a studio by the English writer Gilbert Cannan and his actress wife Mary (née Ansell), previously married to the writer J.M. Barrie. The house attracted many of their artist friends including D.H. Lawrence and Mark Gerstler. The latter painted "Gilbert Cannan and his Mill" which can now be found the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Luath, the dog depicted on the right, belonged to J.M. Barrie and is thought to have been the inspiration for Nana, the Darling children's nurse in "Peter Pan".

Today, only a few of them are still in operation in their original function; instead, they often serve as mere technical and historical monuments to a long tradition of craftsmanship: The heavy millstones inside were moved solely by the power of the wind, for example, grinding grain into flour (so-called grain mills) or pressing oil from fruits (e.g., olives) (so-called oil mills). Thus, these old windmills are the best proof that people were clever enough to harness the power of the wind several centuries ago – long before the discovery of electricity and the inventions that followed it.