Sixpenny Handley

Above : An extract of Aldwell's map of 1618 :

An early map of Cranborne Chase dated 1618 and drawn by Thomas Aldwell, shows a windmill site on Gussage Downs to the east of Deane and to the south ofHanley. As other windmills are annotated as "old windmill" on this map, it would perhaps point to the windmill dating from the early 1600's.

Ogilby 1675

Taylor 1765

Tithe Map (c1840)

1st Edition OS map

Present OS map

Google Maps

The windmill : aerial photograph crop mark only (see below)

The Millers

Some information of Millers and associated families living in the area are given in the link below :

https://catalogue.millsarchive.org/uploads/r/mills-archive-2/e/d/e/edec7c9dbea85238e5fa8d09ffc65bba3257d2734547523ca21abd042bb32b7e/Dorset_Millers_Version_2.pdf

Present site condition :

I was very fortunate to meet the well known local archeologist Martin Green during a visit to his archeology sites at his Down Farm near Sixpenny Handley.

Afterwards, he very kindly sent me (July 2017) an aerial photograph taken to capture the crop mark of a Neolithic Enclosure but also showing the classic cross of a windmill base. This appears to tie up with the TA place names above and the cropmark is on the south side of the minor road (B3081) leading to the village. This is the road show in the lower section of the aerial photo below. Martin also mentioned that he recalled having another aerial shot of another similar cropmark near Church Farm in Handley.

Notes and comments :

Situated to the north west of the main Blandford to Salisbury road (near the Wiltshire border), this village lies in the heart of Cranborne Chase (the name is derived from two medieval hundreds of Saxpena and Hanlege).

An early map of Cranborne Chase dated 1618 and drawn by Thomas Aldwell, (see above) shows a windmill site on Gussage Downs to the east of Deane and to the south of Hanley. As other windmills are annotated as "old windmill" on this map, it would perhaps point to the windmill dating from the early 1600's.

The Tithe Award for the area (refs 367-9) bears this out and indicates three windmill field place-names adjoining one another :

Windmill Field -367; Pit in Windmill Field - 368; Upper Windmill Field - 369.

The cropmark photograph above, of course, gives positive proof of the former windmill.

Martin Green of Down Farm also recalled having another aerial photograph showing a second windmill near Church Farm which is just north of the church in the village itself.

This windmill may have been destroyed as a result of a serious fire on 20th May 1892 which burned most of the village to the ground. A spark flew from the wheelwright's shed into the High Street and thatched roofs soon spread the fire. Although there was no loss of life, 186 villagers were made homeless and lost everything. Neighbouring villagers soon donated clothes and there were so many given that it was said that you could tell a Handley man because he wore two if not three waistcoats ! The present day annual "Waistcoat festival" held each May commemorates the event.

The map extract below shows Church Farm location just north of St Marys Church.