For the first time, Brewhurst Mill in Loxwood, was opened in aid of The Wey & Arun Canal Trust, by kind permission of Mr Peter Foulger, as part of this year's National Heritage Open Days organised by The Civic Trust. More than 200 people took advantage of seeing the mill and were able to climb up all three floors and visit the engine room.

The mill has been in existence since at least 1500. A major fire around 1890 destroyed the two upper floors leaving only the existing brickwork, and it is not known how long the rebuilding took to complete but it is thought that the reduced amount of water usage during this period contributed towards the silting up of the mill pond.

The original power to drive the mill came from an overshot waterwheel situated below the ground floor. This wheel was 12ft (3.6m) in diameter by 7ft 2½in (2.2m) wide, with 56 curved wrought iron buckets transferring the power of the water and driving a large pit wheel with its wooden teeth, which in turn transferring power through the shafting to all of the machinery. The remains of this wheel are thought to date from 1840.

There is a further water wheel outside on the north-western end of the building. This was built at a later date to overcome problems caused by the lower wheel being inoperable in times of flood; this is a much simpler construction, there being an ample supply of water when this wheel would have been used. In 1928 further modernisation of machinery took place and a Blackstone 41 HP oil engine was installed which ran all the machinery until 1981 although commercial grinding had ceased in 1968. This engine has now been restored and is able to drive the machinery once again.

The principal interest on the ground floor is the cast iron hursting, gears and tendering mechanisms for the two pairs of stones, and the primary belt line shafting distributing the power for all machinery within the mill and a bucket and belt elevator.

On the first floor one is able to see the two pairs of stones, a stone crane, the mechanism that operates the internal and external hoists and a grain cleaner. The mill office is also on this floor. The second floor carries four large grain bins, a roller mill and a winnowing machine. The top end of the bucket and belt elevator emerges on this floor.

There is a third floor consisting of a walkway above the bins, where the 2.25cwt (112.5kg) sacks of corn having been lifted to the top by the hoist would have been pushed on a sack barrow along to the relevant bin and then tipped in.