Norfolk Mills depicted on village signs are of significant importance and this was the subject that Dr Andrew Tullet focused on during an evening of facts, fiction, stories and laughter.
Norfolk village signs date from the 1900s. Concentrating on three types of mills which are often pictures on village signs, we looked firstly at watermills, these pre-date windmills. At the time of Domesday in 1086, five hundred and eighty watermills were recorded in Norfolk. The watermill at Newton Flotman, owned and run by the Duffields, was one of the few left by 2023. Many village signs depicting their mills include one of the millstones at the base of the sign. At Tharston, the millstone is the prominent feature of the village sign. Tharston mill, remodelled in 1952, doubled its capacity, it was taken over by the Duffields who ran it until its closure in 1970.
Windmills and their sails are dependant on the wind turning gracefully as they carry out their work, these date from the 13th century. Sir William Cubitt, born in Dilham, Norfolk in 1875, was a millwright and a civil engineer. In 1807 he took out a patent for an innovative type of sail for windmills instead of spreading cloth over the sails, the patent sail was a series of lightly hinged shutters which could be opened and closed simultaneously, being self-regulating they made the most of the wind. Faden’s map of 1797 showed two hundred and fifty six mills in Norfolk. Garboldisham village sign shows a post mill which is one of the oldest in Norfolk dating to 1780s and was the last working mill of its kind. Wicklewood shows a tower mill of five stories, windmills require three stories allowing space for the sails to turn, by the middle of the 19th century, as new innovations were developed, many mills were ‘hained’ a Norfolk word for heightened, this is shown on Gayton village sign with its eight storey tower mill. Sculthorpe sign shows its mill with six sails which is rather unusual. One of the tallest windmills built in Europe was Great Yarmouth’s Southtown tower mill, known as High Mill, it stood twelve storeys high. From the tallest to the widest, Old Buckenham’s tower windmill with its patent sails was the widest to be recorded. By 1937 only eight windmills were still operational.
Drainage mills are those that we are more familiar with in this part of Norfolk. Of course they aren’t technically windmills, they are windpumps, built to pump water from the marshes into the river systems. There are seventy two sites across Norfolk where drainage mills can be located in all types of conditions from ruined bases to the fully restored Horsey windpump. Martham village sign shows one of the two windpumps used to drain the marshes. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening for all who attended.