RYE, SUSSEX – Particulars and Conditions of Sale of a Valuable Smock Windmill, Houses and Shop, Situate in Gibbet Marsh & Ferry Road, Rye, and a Policy of Life Assurance for £200 – Auction Particulars, 25 July 1894

Printed auction particulars, folding to four pages. 41.6 × 26.5 cm.

A rare survival of late Victorian Sussex commercial and milling history comprising the complete auction particulars for the sale of a smock windmill, associated property and a life assurance policy at Rye, Sussex, on 25 July 1894.

The sale was conducted by Messrs. Jas. C. Vidler, Son & Clements at the George Hotel, Rye, and offered three lots:

Lot 1: A smock windmill at Gibbet Marsh, Rye, together with machinery, fixtures and fittings.

Lot 2: A baker’s house and shop situated in Ferry Road, Rye.

Lot 3: A life assurance policy for £200.

The particulars provide a detailed description of the windmill and its equipment, recording four pairs of millstones together with associated machinery and buildings. Such descriptions offer valuable evidence for the operation of working windmills during the closing years of the nineteenth century.

The property was situated at Gibbet Marsh and Ferry Road, an area on the edge of Rye long associated with wind-powered milling. The district remains one of the most recognisable historic landscapes in the town and is closely connected with Rye’s milling heritage.

Particularly interesting is the inclusion of a life assurance policy as a separate lot. Issued by the Grenville Life Assurance Society and originally effected in April 1874, the policy was valued at £200. The inclusion of such a financial instrument within an auction sale provides an unusual glimpse into Victorian personal finance and asset ownership.

The particulars were available from William Dawes, solicitor, of Watchbell Street, Rye. The sale was conducted at the George Hotel, Rye, one of the town’s principal coaching inns and commercial meeting places. Long associated with auctions, markets and local business, the hotel remains a prominent landmark in Rye today.

A smock mill was a type of windmill characterised by a fixed timber tower, usually octagonal in form, surmounted by a rotating cap carrying the sails. By the nineteenth century it had become one of the most common forms of windmill construction in southern England.

Auction particulars relating specifically to working windmills are increasingly difficult to locate, particularly when they survive complete and preserve detailed descriptions of the machinery, premises and associated property. The present example provides an informative record of Rye’s commercial and industrial life during the late Victorian period.

Condition: Slight age-toning, old folds and light handling wear. Very good overall.

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