Wimbledon Windmill - a real, chickenpox, which is in excellent condition and is fully capable of grinding grain. But now there is a museum details the history and development of the mills - from primitive stone equipped to wind turbines.

In Britain, the beginning of the XIX century, the grain was milled using steam and water mechanisms, such was not Wimbledon. In 1816, a carpenter from Roehampton Charles Marsh has applied to lease land for the windmill on the territory of Wimbledon Common. Land was given for 99 years with an annual rent of two shillings - with the condition that the tenant build the mill "for the benefit and convenience of the neighborhood."

Charles Marsh was a carpenter, not a mechanic, and has built an unusual structure. It was a two-story house with a tower on which the self-adjusting sails 15 meters in diameter structure William Kyubitta. The vertical shaft extending through the center of the building, rotating millstones. The whole structure is automatically rotated in the wind.

The machine worked properly until 1864, when a local landowner Earl Spencer has announced that it intends to build a house on this site. The litigation lasted for six years, the land as a result of local government has passed. Marsh sold the company to Wimbledon, but at the same time took all the "stuffing" of the mill. The building was rebuilt under the housing. In 1902, there was writing a book "Scouting for Boys" Baron Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scout Movement. In 1975, the mill has been restored and converted into a museum.

On two floors of exposition, introduces different types of windmills all ages. Unusually look here exhibited enormous wooden gears (railways were too expensive), lubricating fat bronze bearings. Very impressive hand-mill (there are over 500 years BC. E.) With a gap between the millstones just a quarter of a millimeter. Here - an extensive collection of wood and hand tools from the XV century.

One of the rooms on the first floor of the home retains the appearance of the Victorian era. A visitor clicks - heard the cat purring. The ground floor has a diorama showing the process of building a mill - well-dressed carpenters sawing logs handsaws. Special booth devoted father scouting Baron Baden-Powell.

Museum exclusively devoted volunteers, so it is open only on weekends.