Norfolk Mills - Northwold watermill

As a boy I lived at Methwold. I am certain Northwold Mill was intact 1944/45.It was certainly there July 1945 because I cut my foot swimming in the pool and Mr. Bateman took me by car to the doctor in Northwold. I used to go swimming and fishing and remember exploring inside. It was non operative then. I vaguely remember climbing in from the wheel somehow. All else that I remember was netting - perhaps eel nets - spread about. Also climbing up to different floors. I don't remember machinery. When swimming in the pool we boys were joined sometimes by American airmen, I believe from Bodney.

Basil Kybird - 5th March 2007

I guess - admittedly without any documentary evidence - that William Coker may have been introduced to milling at Shipdham in the 1820s; but I can tell you that his father and he co-signed a 21-year lease of Northwold Mill on 13 Dec 1832 (Norfolk Records Office, MC84/13, 523X8). One way or another, I believe that Fuller Snr. bought the freehold of Northwold Mill Farm for William's occupation, possibly from The Hon. Henry William Wilson of Didlington Hall. (One of Fuller Snr's grandsons born in 1833 was christened William Wilson Coker - he eventually qualified as both a surgeon and a physician and practised in Chicago IL until his death in 1909 - and I cannot find any other reason where the 'Wilson' might have come from, except as a form of tribute.)
You may be interested to know that the 1851 Census (TNA, Northwold, Norfolk, HO 107/774/11/7, p.6) shows that William employed a 20-year-old called John Harrod as a miller ... John appears to have taken over the lease of the mill in about 1868, and is certainly mentioned as the miller in Northwold in Kelly's Directory of 1883 (viz. EC 'Paddy' Apling's excellent website).
The evidence suggests to me that William did not renew his lease in 1853, but concentrated on his farming instead until his relatively early death in 1860.

Anthony Coker - 19th July 2017

I remember the water mill from 1948/9 when the structure was In poor condition, my parents allowed me and my sisters to swim in the pool race providing we did not enter the building . My father was Head Keeper on the Didlington Estate and I also used to swim with another keepers son Gerald Dye, both in the river and of course at the mill. Our fishing expeditions in the river were unmitigated failures equipped with a bent pin, dough and string.

Maurice Jay - 27th August 2019


c.1920 with many broken windows	6th March 2004


Bypass June 1968	Headrace June 1968


Mill dam February 1983	Tailrace February 1983


Mill dam 6th March 2004	Tailrace 6th march 2004