In 1754, John Wicker bought Knepp and immediately commissioned James Crow to prepare a detailed survey of the estate. This invaluable map still hangs in the Estate Office today. It shows that the estate had already been disemparked, and that the area of the former deer park had been given over to agricultural use, divided into a number of largely rectilinear fields. It also confirms the existence of Knepp Mill Pond, and shows the location of a Mill building at its southern end, with a windmill sited close-by. I am intrigued, as a search through the Burrell archives is strangely silent on this important piece of industrial archaeology. When was it built? When did it go? Who was the miller? So many questions. Anyone studied the mills in this part of West Sussex?
S.H. Grimm, the artist, painted a watercolour of the mill pond and windmill in 1788
Please contact me if you have any knowledge about this lost mill.
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