IT DOES everything a windmill does, except you drag it around a field with a tractor.

This Victorian mobile grain mill discovered in Oxfordshire is thought to be a unique contraption, but is in desperate need of a loving new home.

Farm machinery enthusiasts Stuart Fassnidge and Richard Shircore bought "Millie" the mobile mill for £500 but now they urgently need to a find a home for her before the winter to stop her wooden components from rotting away.

If they can just keep her safe and dry they hope they might even be able to get her back up and running.

Mr Fassnidge, who lives with his wife in Lewknor, South Oxfordshire, said: "No one who has been involved with it has found anything like it at all.

"It uniquely encapsulates in one contraption the three things that were done either in a watermill or windmill – but it is mobile.

"I would imagine the tractor would tow it along.

"Nothing on Google talks about a mobile corn mill so it does appear to be unique."

Mr Fassnidge and Mr Shircore are both retired and share their love of restoring vintage farm engines, showing them at steam rallies and country shows.

Mr Fassnidge used to work at the Acco stationery company in Aylesbury while Mr Shircore, who lives in Slough, used to work in the NHS.

Their latest love, Millie the mill, was made in Southampton in 1860 and was first used by a farm in Andover.

It does the three jobs that normal windmill would do: grind wheat to make flour, dress flour to remove chaff and, in a separate compartment, grind coarser grains like barley.

Earlier this century, the granddaughter of the farmer who first used it gifted it to the Reading Museum of Rural Life.

The museum, however, did not have enough room for it so it was taken by Buckinghamshire millwright David Empringham who wanted to restore it.

When he retired in 2011 he gave Millie to the Chinnor Windmill and it was there that Mr Fassnidge discovered it at open day in May this year.

He said: "Straight away I saw it was an amazing piece of kit but obviously needing some care and attention so we decided we would buy it off them.

"We needed a new project, this was unique and it looked like a good challenge."

So in August the friends forked over £500 for the unique antique.

The only problem was they had nowhere to put it, so Millie is still sat in a corner of the yard at Chinnor Windmill, getting battered by elements.

Mr Fassnidge, a father of two and grandfather of one, said: "We just need a local farmer who has got a barn or a bit of space in a corner of a barn.

"We would happily pay rental, we need to get it under cover, otherwise we'll put it under a tarpaulin, but it desperately needs to get under cover so it stops rotting."

Anyone who is able to help can contact phughes@nqo.com.