A milestone for mills

Norfolk Windmills Trust celebrates its diamond anniversary in 2023. It was established 60 years ago, with the aim of preserving the county’s remaining windmills, watermills and their associated buildings and machinery.

The trust cares for several former corn mills (including the windmills at Billingford, Old Buckenham and Wicklewood), the combined watermill and windmill at Little Cressingham, and the water-powered Gunton Park Sawmill, but most of the sites in its care are Broads drainage windmills.

When the trust was founded, it was a critical time for these mills. For around 200 years they had been used to manage water levels on the Broads marshes to create pasture dry enough for cattle grazing. As electric pumps took over the drainage in the first half of the 20th century, the mills became redundant. No longer required for their original purpose they were not maintained. Many fell into a state of disrepair, others were demolished entirely.

Norfolk Windmills Trust has always sought to preserve the most important sites, either by managing them directly, or in earlier years, overseeing fundraising and organising repairs.

The area with the densest concentration of drainage mills on the Broads is Halvergate Marshes. The trust cares for several mills here including High’s Mill (the oldest on these marshes, dating from the early 19th century) and Ashtree Farm Mill, which was built in 1912 and continued working until 1953 (a contender as one of the last drainage mills to be built and worked on the Broads). On the southern edge of Halvergate Marshes, Polkey’s Mill shares its site with a steam engine house, diesel engine shed and a modern electric pump – the whole history of Broads drainage technology in one location. Cadge’s Mill (owned by the trust) and North Mill are also on the same site, which you can see walking east along the River Yare on the Wherryman’s Way from Reedham. The first drainage mill to be looked after by the trust also celebrates a significant anniversary in youtube.com/watch?v=su5xCGL4imA hardleywindmilluk.org

2023. Stracey Arms Drainage Mill (left) was constructed for its owner, Sir Henry Stracey of Rackheath Hall, in 1883. It’s on the River Bure, not far from Halvergate Marshes. The 140th anniversary of its construction coincides with the end of a major restoration project supported by a generous grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Maintaining mills is a continuous challenge and restoring them is extremely expensive, while the number of active millwrights with the necessary skills to carry out work on them has been decreasing. The Water, Mills & Marshes landscape partnership scheme (see page 47) has been working to address this through an apprenticeship scheme and High’s Mill, mentioned earlier, received work as part of the scheme.

Another mill looked after by the trust is Hardley Mill on the River Yare, not far from Loddon and Chedgrave on the River Chet. Water, Mills & Marshes worked with the Friends of Hardley Mill and Julian Claxton, a local film-maker, to produce a video taking you on a tour of the mill and explaining how it actually worked – not always apparent from just looking at a mill! Hardley Mill is fully restored and welcomes visitors.

The trust’s work continues today with Councillor Martin Wilby as chair and over 20 mills in its care. Look out for special events taking place in Norfolk and Suffolk during National Mills Weekend, 13-14 May 2023, including at Stracey Arms Mill. For details of the trust’s mills that are open to the public or viewable from public footpaths (including those at How Hill, see page 7), go to norfolk.gov.uk/out-and-about-in-norfolk/windmills