Jill Windmill is not open to visitors at this time of the year, however access may be granted on Saturdays (see below).
Open Days at Jill Windmill usually take place on most Sunday afternoons from May to September. These days depend upon the availability of volunteers.
Please do contact us if you would like to assist with our Public Open Days.
Maintenance work is undertaken on most Saturdays, when Jill Windmill is closed to visitors. Depending upon the nature of the maintenance work being undertaken, casual visitors may occasionally be granted access to the mill grounds and exceptionally access inside Jill Windmill, though such access is at the discretion of our work team. Maintenance work is given priority over visitors, so those hoping to gain access on a Saturday may well be disappointed.
Please note that whilst we will make every effort to open Jill Windmill to visitors, we do very much rely upon the goodwill and the availability of our volunteers, so we cannot guarantee that Jill Windmill will be open to visitors on every planned date.
Please contact us if you would be interested in being a Mill Steward, keeping our visitors safe in the Mill, or if you are willing to help in the Roundhouse with teas or souvenirs. The duties are not that onerous and everybody who comes to help enjoys it.
Please click here for full details of planned Open Days.
Donations are one of our Charity's main income sources.
Admission up into the mill body [to view Jill's millstones and her 19th century machinery] is by donation. Recommended donation : £2 per person / £5 per family.
For those who are unable to visit on Open Days, this website includes a Virtual Tour of Jill Windmill, detailing her design, her machinery and how she works.
We can usually accommodate pre-booked visits on weekdays [between May and
September] for school children, students, walkers, photographers, engineers and other groups.
Jack Windmill is in private ownership and is not open to the general public, however our Society Members are granted exclusive access to Jack on specified dates each Summer.
We welcome visitors from near and far :
Travelling to Jill Windmill : As Jill Windmill does not have an official postal address, her location may not appear on all online maps.
Her postcode is BN6 9PG.
The above is an extract from the "Windmills Of England" map, created by Paul Barber. Please
click here to view the full map, which may take a while to load.
We are most grateful to Bing Places for Business Support for featuring both "Jill Windmill" and "Clayton Windmills" on Bing Maps.
On occasions, Jill Windmill's Fantackle mechanism gets caught out when the wind springs up from right behind the Sweeps. This is known as a tailwind.
Remarkably, Jill's location on is presented.tailwind.checked !
Car: From the A23 (London - Brighton road) turn off at Pyecombe village, six miles South of Burgess Hill and follow the A273 Northwards.
The windmills can be reached via "Mill Lane", located on the right hand side as the road begins to run downhill.
Drivers of high sided vehicles should note that there is a height restriction bar located approximately 19 metres from the car park entrance. As a result, the northern end of the car park can only be used by vehicles under two metres high.
Our postcode for Sat-Nav users is BN6 9PG. [Note : This is the location of Jill Windmill and is not a correspondence address. Please do not write to us at this address, refer instead to our contacts page.]
Train: The nearest railway station is Hassocks. A footpath (1¾ miles) runs alongside the railway line from Hassocks to Clayton village.
This map by John Hewes shows the footpaths to Jack and Jill Windmills, as well as a walking route to Ditchling Museum.
The map (not to scale) is from the website visitbytrain.info, which aims to help with the planning of visits by train to attractions in cities, towns, villages and the countryside.
The interior of Clayton Church has an extensive set of wall paintings, dating from the early 12th century.
The North portal of Clayton Tunnel, built in 1841, is a Gothic folly with castellated towers.
Bus:
Metrobus runs limited services on Sundays. Please check their online timetables for Service 270 and Service 271.
Southbound buses stop at "Mill Lane", and Northbound buses stop at "Rockrose".
Mill Lane, which leads to Clayton Windmills, is 300 metres North of the "Rockrose" bus stop.
Helpfully, the "Jack & Jill" bus stop, is located at the foot of the Downs. The "Mill Lane" bus stop is closer !
On Foot: The South Downs Way passes Jack and Jill Windmills, connecting them with Devil's Dyke to the West and Ditchling Beacon to the East.
Footpaths run up to the windmills from both Clayton village green and Clayton Pumping Station.
Brighton & Hove City Council have produced some 'Downs on your Doorstep' countryside trails leaflets (including "The Chattri and the Windmills") which are available to download.
Click here for an enlargement of this local map, which includes parts of the South Downs Way and also the Sussex Border Path.
National Grid Reference : TQ 303134
Over the course of the year, Jill Windmill is surrounded by a succession of wild flowers including snowdrops and daffodils. Our most prolific flowers are cowslips. Click here for photographs
Legends of buried Golden Calves are quite popular in West Sussex. There are two buried in hillforts (Trundle and Highdown Hill) and a third on Clayton Hill. An old tale advises that there's no point in trying to dig up a Golden Calf : "You know, there's many a one that tried. My dad used to say as his grandfather got up early on Holy Sunday an' went along to the place an' started digging. An' he actually ketched sight of a lump o' gold, an' then he was almost deafed by a clap o' thunder, an' when he looked again, the gold was gone."
My friend Chris Baker from Clayton sent me your website with all the work that is being done on the windmill.
This was very much appreciated since my spouse Dorothy and I were taken there when we visited Hassocks and Clayton several years back.
It was a most interesting site, especially since we don't have such windmills in Florida, only hurricanes!!
The evening that we went there, we took the tour inside the mill and were treated very warmly by the guide, who was very much up to date on the workings of the mill.
Good luck to all of you for the effort you make in keeping a tradition alive.
Hope to be back there some day.
Donald A. Nicholson Fort Myers, Florida
"A special day out for children of all ages"
Sophie, Nicole and Kathleen at Jill Windmill Photographs by Michael Tulley
Dogs are most welcome on site on Open Days, but are not permitted on Jill Windmill's upper floors !
Henry Longhurst country : John James 1930-2010
NOSTALGIC VISIT Circa 1950, Ivan March, a mill enthusiast who resided near Canterbury, brought his family, including the dog, his sister and her son to Sussex for a day out to see Jack and Jill.
No mean feat for that journey in those days !
On the Sunday of National Mills Weekend, his Daughter Heather, now Tucker, paid a nostalgic return visit to Sussex with her family from their home in Rugby to renew their acquaintance with Jack and Jill.
They brought with them a copy of the photograph taken by Ivan showing (from left to right) his wife Joan, their son Hugh, daughter Heather, his sister Molly Breeze, another daughter Diana and Molly's son Michael. In front is the dog Rex.
is presented.tailwind.checked !
