The next phase of restoration work has started to get a 200-year-old windmill working again.

Meopham Windmill, in South Street, Meopham Green, was built in 1819 and is one of the only six-sided smock mills in the country, eight being the usual number.

Its black smock tower stands on a two-storey brick base, and contains all its milling machinery including three pairs of millstones which are used for grinding grains.

Kent County Council has owned and maintained the Grade II*-listed building since 1959.

It is in a prominent position overlooking the village cricket pitch and is managed on a daily basis by the Meopham Windmill Trust.

Last year, the two agencies launched a project to return the structure into full-working order, meaning it could mill flour using wind power.

The first two phases involved re-cladding the wooden tower and renewing the external reefing stage at second floor level.

The organisations have now started on the next lot of work to repair the sweeps and cap – designed to rotate with the wind but currently stuck in position – of the roof.

They were both dismantled earlier this month and transported to a specialist workshop in Suffolk to be repaired and the working parts fixed. Four new sweeps are also being built.

A flat roof has been fitted temporarily to protect it from weather but the new sweeps are expected to be in place by the end of 2023.

Once they are in position, the inside of the mill will be set up for operation and the drive gearing and millstones taken apart and repaired.

Read more: Kent's surviving and lost windmills.

The 200-year-old mill was formally known as Killick's Mill and was made using old ship timbers from Chatham Dockyard.

The building next to the hexagonal base is used as the office for Meopham Parish Council.