Leonard Cripps

Mr Cripps was born in the village in 1907, in a cottage that stood in the grounds of Postmill House, in Windmill Lane.

He came from a family of millers: his grandfather George Cripps, from Quainton in Buckinghamshire, bought the Wheatley Postmill in 1850 and the Wheatley Tower Mill in 1856.

His father worked the Wheatley Tower Mill regularly until 1914 and also operated the Castle Watermill in Oxford.

Mr Cripps was a pupil at the infants school in Bell Lane and later the main school in Church Road, Wheatley.

Classes did not last long, however, and by the age of 12 he began his working life.

His first job was working for a retired judge, who had returned to the UK from India to build himself a house on Ladder Hill.

He polished shoes, gathered firewood, ran errands, helped the gardener and helped out around the house.

In 1927 he met Phyllis Isobel Shurmer, who became his wife in 1934, and they went on to have two children, Roy and Mavis.

The couple left Wheatley after getting married and moved to Gidley Way, Horspath. By this time Mr Cripps was working as an electrician for his cousin, Reg Bannister.

When the Second World War broke out, Mr Cripps remained in Cowley as he was working in a reserved occupation for the Pressed Steel. He also served as an ARP Warden in Horspath.

After the war, Mr Cripps worked as an electrician at Pressed Steel until his retirement in 1970.

The tower mill ceased to work after it was struck by lightning in 1939, but Mr Cripps' mother made him promise not to sell it.

A chance meeting with Wilfred Foreman, who was researching for a book on Oxfordshire mills, led to its restoration. On July 30 this year, the day the first pair of new sails went on the mill, Mr Cripps lost his wife of 73 years.

The restoration project was completed shortly before Mr Cripps passed away, and a party was held in his honour, with 64 of his relatives and 21 members of the Wheatley Windmill Restoration Society.