2014 Mike Highfield Obituary

Hallmark Februay 2015. A Tribute To Mike Highfield 1933 - 2014 By Michael G Hardy (click Michael & Betty Hardy for more about Michael)

In 1967 Mike Highfield met Christopher Wallis, when they were both looking at The Windmill, and Mike became involved in the preliminary work of clearing the site in May 1969

In 1971 when the project really got started, Mike took his primary role in the restoration work, overseeing the mechanical engineering. The most crucial part was restoring the early 19» century fantail and other machinery that enables over 9 tons of cap to turn automatically, keeping the main sails facing into the wind at all times.

Mike was well suited to that aspect of the work, his greatest interest was engineering, having spent his National Service maintaining Spitfires and Meteor jets. He had a collection of vintage motorcycles and was highly respected by fellow enthusiasts, manufacturing unavailable spare parts for motorbikes, enabling others to keep their machines running. With his increasing passion for the restoration of mills, in the 1980s Mike left his career as a Bank Manager, and joined Christopher Wallis in millwrighting.

I worked closely with Mike for 30 years, and he became a good friend. He died suddenly on 27 October 2014, and will be greatly missed by many people, and especially his family.

With the deaths of Jeff Hawkins in 2001, Christopher Wallis in 2006, and Mike Highfield in 2014, we have lost the original key members of the restoration team, together with their expertise, and detailed knowledge of how the restoration was achieved. However we are very clear that our duty now is to preserve the work that these three visionary men started, as it was them that encouraged all their helpers to achieve the near impossible, which has now been seen by the 49,000 visitors who have visited the inside of the windmill in the last 40 years.