A CHANCE find during restoration of a historic windmill has restored a connection with Thurrock.

Upminster Windmill is a Grade II listed local landmark that was built by local farmer James Nokes in 1803 and in terms of quality, completeness and significance it is widely considered to be among the very best remaining English smock mills.

The windmill is currently being restored to working order in a project that started in December 2015 with the building of the Visitor Centre and has since involved the partial dismantling of the windmill to allow repairs to be undertaken. The restoration is expected to be complete this Summer.

And during those repairs a connection with South Ockendon-based H W Wilson has recently been uncovered.

Written in pencil on the back of the sack hoist (internal machinery) and hidden for almost 70 years, has been found the inscription: "Repairs to mill by E J Bailey S J Green 1955 for H W Wilson."

Dave Sach who worked for H W Wilson for almost 50 years, and is currently volunteering on the windmill project alongside the local millwright to complete the internal refurbishment, alerted H W Wilson to the discovery and the company has since located E J Bailey and S J Green in pay records dating from 1950 with the former being a carpenter and the latter an Improver called Stan.

H W Wilson has also discovered the works in 1955 were awarded by the Upminster Windmill Committee in October that year for £385 3s 2d which is the equivalent to just over £10,000 today!

H W Wilson Managing Director Peter Wiffen says: "We were delighted when Dave Sach brought this to our attention. For almost 100 years H W Wilson has been leaving its mark on the local area and to re-discover this link with such an iconic local landmark underlines this local relationship.

"Stan Green is still recalled by some of our employees today. We hope his relatives, and those of Mr Bailey, take some pride in seeing their names etched into Upminster Windmill which will remain there forever more."

Dennis Coombs, Chairman Friends of Upminster Windmill: "We are grateful to H W Wilson for providing us with some background on what must have been extensive repairs in 1955 - this is valuable for our archive and is certainly an interesting addition to Upminster Windmill's timeline."