Cambridgeshire windmill's conversion to turbine will power home

Smock Tower Mill is currently undergoing renovation work so it can generate electricity and its owners can live it in.

A 19th Century windmill is being renovated to generate electricity the National Grid could use.

Smock Tower Mill hopes to "get the mill working again to generate electricity", said its owner, James Forsythe.

Its false cap was rotten and over three years a replacement has been built, which is being moved into position.

The mill, in Swaffham Prior near Cambridge, ceased grinding corn in 1925 and fell into dereliction after World War Two.

The village will be the only place in the UK with two working windmills, Smock Tower Mill and Fosters Mill, when the renovations are completed, said Mr Forsythe.

He said the building was currently one of only three remaining eight-sided windmills in the country.

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He said him and his wife, who bought the mill five years ago, want to live at the site after the renovations are finished - turning it from a mill to a turbine.

They will use the mill to generate electricity with its sails, and the top floor will become the electricity generating room.

The electricity generated from the mill "would totally write off our bills", Mr Forsythe said.

He said any excess electricity generated would be sold to the National Grid.

The windmill's original cap and sails were believed to have been removed during World War Two because they were being used as navigation aids by German pilots

The building, which originally milled corn, was constructed sometime between 1835 and 1850, although the exact dates were unclear, and it was a worked mill until 1925 when it was severely damaged by a storm and began to fall into disrepair.

Mr Forsythe said it has been rumoured that the cap and sails were removed during World War Two, because both of the village's mills were being used as navigation markers by German pilots.

He added that English Heritage had previously prevented the mill being demolished after the conservation body opposed plans to build a house on the plot.

Mr and Mrs Forsythe planned to live at the site after the remaining scaffolding work was complete.

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