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c.1912 |
Weybourne Mill Spring Beck |
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c.1912 |
| Weybourne mill's present structure could be the same age as the mill house, which is thought to date from 1729, when the village was known as Wabourne. Both were built from brick and beach flints with a Norfolk pantiled roof. The house could well have been enlarged later and has the iron initials E.N. (Edmund Nurse) on one gable. In 1938 Claude Messent wrote that Weybourne Mill was the second smallest in the county after Little Cressingham. The picture above shows Mr. and Mrs. Ellis Beales with their daughter and maid standing outside the mill, possibly just before the first world war. |
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August 1967 |
7th April 2003 |
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Weybourne Mill was powered by one of the few overshot wheels in Norfolk as there was insufficient water available to power the more commonly found and less efficient breast or undershot wheels. Overshot wheels are comparatively rare in Norfolk due to the mainly gentle terrain. The only other mills to use this system that I have found so far were at Buxton (one of the two wheels) Foulden, Hingham, Mundesley and Tharston. The present building was built some time before 1723 and it was shown on the earliest O.S. maps in 1838. For many years it was worked in conjunction with Weybourne postmill on the same property. In the 13th century a priory was founded at Weybourne and it is likely that it owned both mills. |
Edmund Nurse was born in Trimingham and baptised on 25th May 1769. He went on to marry Mary Mallis née Larkman of Weybourne on 12th October 1801 in Weybourne church. |
To Millers. To be Sold by Private Contract.
An eligible FREEHOLD ESTATE situate in Weybourne in the County of Norfolk consisting of a water mill driving two pairs of French Stones & a Windmill driving two pairs of stones with Flour Mills & all the going Gears in each complete; also a commodious Dwelling House, Barn, Stables & other convenient Outbuildings & 4 acres more or less of excellent Arable Land. Half the Purchase Money may remain on Mortgage. Apply to Messrs. BALLACHEY & SON, Solrs. Holt. Norfolk Chronicle - 20th March 1841 |
During the 1800s when the mill and much of the Weybourne areas were owned by William J. Bolding, it is reputed that he turned a blind eye to smuggled goods landed on the beaches bordering his property and was always duly rewarded with a couple of tubs left discretely on his doorstep. |
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Leat in August 1967 |
Leat in April 2003 |
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Mill leat in August 1967 with the sea behind |
12th July 2006 |
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Original leat housing and brickwork 12th July 2006 |
Over the years the wheelhouse walls were marked by the turning wheel or foreign bodies lodged in it. Two sets of not quite concentric marks provide evidence that the waterwheel was replaced or rehung, possibly in 1855 when W.J.J. Bolding overhauled the mill, leaving his initials in the concrete. Later the wheel was removed and a Thompson turbine was installed by Samuel Nott in about 1900 in order to improve efficiency. Unusually the two pairs of stones were driven from above, the only other Norfolk mills I have found so far that shared this arrangement are Hunworth, Snettisham and Stoke Holy Cross. |
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Millstone steps of French burrstone August 1967 |
Bedstone with a cross-tailed gudgeon axle bearing on top |
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Water Mill House August 1967 |
When Robert and Edmund [Nurse] emigrated in 1849, the farm and mill were purchased at auction by their eldest brother James (born 1793) in Weybourne where he trained as a miller before buying the village store and postmill in Hindolveston. There he married another Platten, Martha, daughter of an owner farmer from Wood Norton, Samuel Platten, and his second wife Rebecca Sawyer from Foulsham. He had a son in Hindolveston in 1835 and christened James Platten Nurse who married Ester from Swanton and had two children before following his father as miller in Kelling. |
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Tithe map showing the postmill and watermill |
Tithe Award 1840 |
Map 1838 |
| No. 230 : Mill Close - post mill on roundhouse. Arable | 2a. 1r. 38p. |
| No. 231: House, mill etc. watermill on millpond. Pasture | 1a. 0r. 10p. |
| 3a. 2r. 8p. = 19s. |
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Weybourne dam 7th April 2003 |
Thomas Armes owned Weybourne watermill during at least the second half of the 1830s. Thomas, who was born in Gorleston c.1774, married Mary Hammond on July 9th, 1823 at Weybourne. The marriage was witnessed by John Pilch and Mary Dack. On July 20th 1823, Mary gave birth to a daughter, Martha. They then had a son Thomas, born 28th November 1824 a second daughter Marianne on 6th November 1826 and another son, John, born 2nd November 1827 and then a third daughter Elizabeth, baptised January 26th 1834. Thomas was listed in the Holt census of 1851 as being 77 years old and a landowner. |
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Turbine 12th July 2006 |
Crownwheel section 19th July 2006 |
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Machinery removed during renovation 12th July 2006
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Cross tailed gudgeons September 2006 |
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O.S. Map 2005 Image reproduced under licence from Ordnance Survey |
c.1070: Area around Weybourne including 2 mills, given by William I to his sister's son, Hugh Earl of Chester
Kelly's 1933: Mill listed as a private residence owned by Richard Beckett
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| Nat Grid Ref TG10964340 | Copyright © Jonathan Neville 2004 |