Vale Mill - Hougues du Moulin

Reached my 100th blip today, so that's exciting. Thanks to everyone for sticking with my island ramblings.

The picture I have taken today is of the Vale Mill. An iconic structure in the North of the island which can be seen from all over the parish. I have managed to find a bit of history about it.

The Vale Mill was originally built in 1770 out of wood and stood for 84 years before the wooden building was replaced with one made of local granite.

The mill originally operated as a flour windmill complete with large sails to drive its internal mechanisms and it remained in this state until the German Occupation of Guernsey in 1940.

When the German forces arrived they removed the sails to allow three extra stories to be added to the structure, built using reinforced concrete. These extra stories included an anti-aircraft position and a range finding station. The station made use of the mill's height which gives it panoramic views across the whole northern half of Guernsey and out to Herm and Sark.

To provide camouflage for the building the German forces reattached the sails to the building so as any RAF aircraft flying over would assume it was a working mill and not a military target.

Following the war the States of Guernsey set about removing the German built concrete parts of the building, and so once more removed the sails.

The cost of this process meant it was never completed and two of the Occupation era floors remain, including the range finding station which in 2006 still featured the diagrams of the islands and other landmarks like those seen on the range finding posts at Castle Cornet.

Since the Second World War the mill remained largely unused. The interior and exterior were renovated in 2006 and the building was auctioned. It was purchased by an unknown bidder for £57,000, though it is unclear what the building will be used for.