A historic windmill is one step closer to being restored to working order after the cap was hoisted back into place following five years of renovations.

Volunteers from The White Mill Rural Heritage Centre have given up their free time to renovate the cap of the structure in Sandwich since 2018 when it was lifted off the tower for the first time.

The cap was built with 18th century engineering so had never been on the ground before - it would originally have been constructed in situ, at the top of the mill.

But after years of hard work, the cap has now been secured back into place where it will likely remain for the next 100 years.

White Mill is a smock mill that retains its original wooden machinery and was restored between 1960 and 1961 by millwright Vincent Pargeter.

It is surrounded by the original outbuildings and millers cottage.

Although not an active windmill, the idea is for it to eventually be restored to working order.

The White Mill Rural Heritage Centre is a trust with around 20 volunteers who gave up their time to carry out the detailed restorations.

Chairman of the trust Martin Smith explained: “The intention is for it to be fully operational once the current works are complete which will make it fairly unique, given its age.

“We are fortunate that all the internal machinery wasn't removed so that will all be used.

“We fully intend to produce flour.”

While the work itself has taken five years, the project has been on the cards for much longer.

“We started thinking about this in around 2010,” explained Mr Smith.

“It was triggered by one of the sweeps, which is the sails, and the stock, which is what they're fixed to.

“One of them started to rot and needed to be taken down.

“A few years later we took the other one down and after conversations with the millwright, who has mentored us through this, it seemed possible that we could do a restoration to get it working again.

“Someone on the committee put out feelers for new members and we suddenly had lots of people with a history in construction and heritage buildings so we had lots of useful skills.

“By 2017 we were making plans to remove the cap and by the end of 2018, we had a crane and we took the cap off and positioned it on props so we could work on it.

“It is a huge achievement to get to this point.“

Visitors are able to go inside the windmill and view displays of agricultural machinery and equipment in the base, as well as seeing the actual mill machinery.