Restoration of model windmill is perfect birthday gift for Peter

A windmill owner who made a model of the landmark 69 years ago, only for it to be damaged in the great storm of 1987 has been reunited with his labour of love after it was repaired.

Peter Bryant, who lives on the site of Pakenham windmill received the revived replica during his 90th birthday celebrations last Thursday thanks to the efforts of his son Alan, who spent weeks repairing it.

Peter was never able to repair the model himself after it was damaged.

Peter started the model when he was 20 years old and completed it when he was 21.

“He had little hand tools, he had to make his own saw bench. Even with today’s modern tools we raised our eyebrows at the level of detail and intricacy,” Alan said.

Alan has been documenting the restoration project on the windmill’s Facebook Page, so that people could follow the model’s journey.

Alan’s father-in-law, Preston Downing, also helped out on the repairs, which they started in July.

In the first Facebook post about renovating the model, Alan said: “Having begun to sift through and begin to rebuild and restore dad’s windmill with my father-in-law Preston, we’ve both been over awed with the level of complexity of the original model of the windmill, one has to remember dad had only hand tools and indeed even built his own saw bench from a Lister engine and plywood, I think we can restore the model to its former glory but hats off to dad for building that back in the day some 69 years ago from nothing with nothing.”

Preston said:“It was quite interesting and I learned quite a lot about the mill, especially from first looking at it where we didn’t know what was what.”

The original windmill, built in 1831, is now the base for the family’s animal and bird feed company, though they also stock flour, eggs, local honey and porridge.

Though the mill has been damaged and renovated through its long history, the family – which has owned the building since 1885 – is now trying to raise the money to get the mill back in full running order.

The last major work was carried out in 2000, when the Heritage Lottery Fund paid 80 per cent of the £60,000 cost.