Cash grant sets fundraisers sailing towards milling again

Fundraisers are celebrating the 46,500 windfall from the National Lottery after the ambitious scheme to restore the historic grade II building in Holgate came top in a phone poll.

The sails are now expected to be fitted next year on to the building, which is York's last surviving windmill.

The Holgate Windmill Preservation Society's chairman, Bob Anderton, said "We are profoundly grateful to everyone who voted for our cause.

"The new sails will be fitted during 2011 and soon afterwards, we will be milling and selling Holgate flour again, after a gap of nearly 80 years."

However, Mr Anderton stressed that another 50,000 is needed for a stand-by electric motor as well as reinstating the internal sack hoist and fitting a lightning conductor.

The mill was built in about 1770 on a site about two miles west of York city centre.

However, milling ceased in 1933 and the building became semi-derelict as York's expanding suburbs gradually surrounded it.

Flour will be produced from locally-grown grain when the restoration work, which began in 2001, is complete.