Why Windmill Hill?
On the back page of Miss Liddle’s book, ‘Notes on Old Chipperfield’, there is an advertisement for the sale of a four storey, stock mill, situated on a desirable plot of about one acre. It is described as having been erected within recent years at considerable expense, being in good repair, having two pairs of millstones and also a stable and a cart hovel. The windmill was available for immediate occupation and was to be sold by auction on 4th April 1828 at the Auction Mart near the Bank of England. John Parsley, the illiterate farmer and Lord of the Manor, who lived at Pingelsgate House (now the Manor House) was the vendor.
It may seem strange for a windmill to have been built on the site where Mill House now stands at the top of Windmill Hill, but prior to 1940 that area had very few trees and so would have been exposed to the prevailing winds.
This was not the first windmill in Chipperfield but the site is most possibly the same. In ‘The History of Kings Langley’ there is mention of Thomas Carter of the Mills in 1528 and by 1556 a younger Thomas Carter of the Mills was the biggest copyhold (manorial leaseholder) farmer in Chipperfield. The mill itself did not belong to the Lord of the Manor, as did the mill in Kings Langley. It was the possession of this mill that enabled this branch of the Carter family to raise their status and wealth above that of their mediaeval origins, when they had been labourers in Kings Langley, sometimes working on the palace.
In 1594, the mill passed out of the hands of the Carter family, when Thomas and two of his eight children died of the plague. Most of his estate passed to Robert Moore.
Mary Nobbs

Due to lack of space, we are unable to print all of this article. Part 2 will be held over and will be published in a future edition of Chipperfield News.