It's a milestone week for Burgh le Marsh windmill which is awaiting the go-ahead for work to begin to restore the sails lost in a storm.
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00:00My name is Malcolm Ringsell and I am the treasurer and site manager for Burley Marsh Heritage
00:07Centre at Dobson's Mill.
00:10Now you're hoping to get some important news this week, can you explain what that is?
00:15Well yes, we've finally got, the county has managed to get quotes and we've got planning
00:23permission during this week for the mill to be restored.
00:29So when is that likely to happen?
00:32We're looking for the money going forward, quite a lot of the money is already there
00:38because this was an insurance shop, but there's some more money needed because since the insurance
00:43was paid out the cost has increased, so we're hoping within the next two years we will get
00:51the mill restored.
00:52Now you have a group of volunteers here aren't you, but you are looking for more, how can
00:58people help you?
00:59That's right, well we need more people to come and help, we've had plenty of suggestions
01:04and people have suggested, well on a lovely day like we've got today, the tea room could
01:09be open, but for the tea room to be open we need volunteers to man it, and there are other
01:14things we need, you know, decoration and painting and cleaning and gardening and grass cutting,
01:21all those jobs on this site are done by volunteers and we need more people to help.
01:28So on the link with this interview there are details on how people can get in touch
01:35with you.
01:36Yeah, that's right, we're hopefully, we did have meetings during last week when people
01:42came and visited us and filled in forms, and we had lots of suggestions, people were looking
01:48to say in the future if we want to be a viable unit we need to possibly adapt a more business
01:57like approach.
01:58We've not had to do that before because we've been able to manage with our resources what
02:04we wanted to do, but of course if we want to increase the income of the mill we need
02:09to have a more business like approach.
02:11And that's what you're looking to do?
02:13And that's what we're looking to do because we had several people come up with some really
02:16good ideas and offers of help, but we still need a lot more offers of help and we need
02:23to look at the long term financial viability of keeping the mill open.
02:29How long, how much would you expect that would be?
02:33Well we need to raise £10,000 a year really to keep the mill working properly with more
02:42money to put into a contingency fund so that the next time the mill needs repairing we
02:48have funds available to do it.
02:51Because a lot of the funding that we can get in the way of grants and so on have what's
02:57called match funding, so if we need something to cost £50,000 we have to find £25,000.
03:06And you have an event for that fundraising this weekend?
03:09We have this weekend, it's National Mills Weekend, all the mills, windmills and watermills
03:13around the country are open to the public in some guise or another and we have Dawn
03:21from Sophisticate at Woodall Spa coming over to give us a cake demonstration and get people
03:29in the audience to help her decorate cakes.
03:32And she actually made the wedding cake for King Charles and Queen Camilla didn't she?
03:38That's right, that's right, she did that and she has a good tale to tell on that, so if
03:43anybody sits down and talks to her, it was a lovely thing that she did.
03:47And she still makes cakes for the Royal Family for Christmas and things like that, but she
03:53can't tell anybody she's doing them until after she's done them of course.
03:57Well, it sounds like a very, very interesting demonstration and for a worthy cause as well.
04:03She is very funny and very, very good.