When talking to children visiting Jill windmill our guides are often asked "Who lived in those old cottages that you told us about ?"

We have many stories, apocryphal though they may be, to satisfy them. Then the thought occurred "Who did live in and around the Mills whilst they were still working ?"

It has been possible, through the considerable help of Jean Poulson of Burgess Hill Local History Society, to study the Census returns from 1841 to 1901.

As always happens, a simple aim increases in complexity when the information studied is fascinatingly interesting.