Owned by Wiltshire County Council, Wilton Windmill is completely operated by an amazing team of willing volunteers. Any funds that we raise, through donations, grants, flour sales, open days and entry fees, are put directly back into the maintenance of the windmill and other specific windmill related projects. Our delightful team of volunteers come from a wide range of backgrounds with a multitude of skills and talents. All enjoy helping to keep the Windmill open to the public and in full working condition for future generations to enjoy. It’s great fun and we offer the most amazing unspoilt landscape to work in, set amidst the stunningly beautiful Vale of Pewsey.
Our aim is to draw upon a large team of volunteers that only need to give a little of their time occasionally. By volunteering at the windmill for a few hours a year, nobody is overburdened as a consequence of their generosity, the ‘many hands make light work’ approach. So, if you’d like to give it a go, we are recruiting for the 2024 season now! There’s sure to be something to suit you! Please take a look at the opportunities below and don’t hesitate to sign up! You can always change your options or leave at any time. Even a short spell of volunteering is extremely helpful to us. We are particularly keen to recruit younger volunteers. Perhaps drama students or people working towards any kind of award scheme. Could it be that you are simply bored during the long university summer holidays!
Become a Volunteer!
With the wide range of volunteering activities we have on offer, which of these roles would suit you?
Milling: This is of course what it’s all about! How do you fancy learning to be a miller? Learn how to start and stop the mill and how to produce our flour that we sell locally. Start by working alongside our experienced millers and eventually progress to working the mill yourself if you have the knack for it!
Maintenance: Maybe maintenance is more your thing? This is a critical role because we can’t mill the flour if the mill isn’t working! So if you like getting your hands dirty, being covered in oil and grease, are good at making and repairing things and can turn your hand to painting and cleaning… this is for you! Oh, you may need a head for heights too!
Shop Assistant: When the windmill is open we also open our delightful custom built shepherds hut for visitors to enjoy refreshments and to purchase entry tickets and other merchandise. If you can make a decent cuppa, serve cakes, biscuits and ice creams, sell tickets, wash up and chat to our visitors in a friendly and welcoming manner you would make an excellent half of a pair of volunteers that operate the shop.
Guiding: We have a team of guides who usually work in pairs during the normal Sunday afternoon openings, and in teams on our special event days. If you want to learn all about the mill and then let others know about its history and how it works, this is a great role for a ‘people person’ who loves chatting and can relate to the wide range of visitors that we attract each year. We have found that drama students or those with amateur dramatic experience can find this role particularly enjoyable and rewarding as they are able to bring the working conditions of the millers of old to life for our modern day visitors.
Conducting Group Visits: A very similar role to Guiding and indeed many of our Sunday guides conduct group visits. If you see yourself working alongside a couple of other volunteers inspiring a group of people, apply now! Visiting groups are very varied and include Brownies, Guides, Scouts, schools, Women’s Institute, ramblers and groups of people with various disabilities. Group visits are more likely to take place on weekdays rather than a weekend day.
Flour bagging: When the milling team have milled some flour, the bagging team comes into its own, measuring the correct quantity of flour out of the large sacks and sealing it into the small bags that we date stamp and sell locally. They are a friendly team, chatting away about any and everything whist they work and drink tea!
Leafleting and Deliveries: When our bags of flour are ready to sell, we need volunteers who can regularly deliver it to one of the local farm shops that we sell it in and build up a good rapport with those businesses. From time to time, we also need people willing to put up posters or deliver leaflets in nearby villages and towns and we like to have enough volunteers to have all areas covered.
Cake making: We raise a lot of money by selling delicious home made cakes at our special events. If you can bake a decent cake we need you!
Helping at events: Each year we hold a few special events and are always grateful for volunteers who will help with a multitude of tasks such as moving tables and chairs, putting up tents and lights, and of course, taking it all down again afterwards!
Committee Membership: Some of our volunteers nominate themselves to become committee members of the Wilton Windmill Society and if elected they get a real chance to lead and shape the direction of the future of the mill and the events that we organise. There are many roles available on the committee including Chairman, Treasurer, and co-ordinators for Milling, Publicity, Membership, Public Relations, Maintenance and Shepherds Hut as well as General Committee Members.
Maybe you are too busy to Volunteer right now?
If you don’t have the time to volunteer right now but still want to help us, perhaps you’d like to support us by making a financial donation towards the upkeep of the mill?
If you are unable to make an on-line donation, then you can either drop some cash into the secure donation box at the Windmill site by the gate, or send a cheque to The Wilton Windmill Society, c/o 199 Wilton Hill, Wilton, Near Marlborough, Wiltshire. SN8 3SP
Your contributions of either time or financial donations are invaluable to the continued success of Wilton Windmill – it’s how we keep things going. Remember to sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date with what’s happening at Wilton Windmill.
There’s no time like the present – Become a Volunteer Right Now!
If something above has appealed to you and you’d like to contribute a little of your time to the Wilton Windmill Society, we would be delighted to welcome you aboard. If we have enough volunteers you will only be offering a few hours of your time during the year and will benefit from:
- Free entry into the windmill.
- Invitation to, and voting rights at the annual Cheese & Wine AGM.
- Invitations to special events arranged just for volunteers.
- The chance to meet people, make new friends and work as a team in beautiful surroundings.
- Notification of, and invitation to, milling sessions (when possible – they are often at very short notice).
- The satisfaction that you are contributing to the continued protection of the only windmill still operating in Wessex.
So, now you have decided to join us, just let us know who you are and what you’d like to do by completing the form below and one of our volunteer team will be in contact with you very soon.