Diss
Rose Lane
postmill

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Drainage Mills (Windpumps)
Steam Mills
Watermills

Diss Rose Lane postmill stood very close to the towermill on the same site. After the postmill was blown down in 1834, the buck was mounted on the base of the earlier towermill to form Rose_Lane_composite_mill. The 4 double shuttered sails of the postmill, turned to the wind by a fantail, ran two pairs of 4ft French burr stones and a flour mill. The mill stood to the north of the Mill House.

July 31st 1834 Diss Mill shattered.
Diary of Thomas King of Thelnetham, Suffolk - 1804 - 1838


Farther down Victoria Road, in Rose Lane, formerly stood two windmills, both marked on the 1837 Ordnance Survey Map. One, a tower-mill, was built to supply power to a factory spinning coarse yarns, but was later converted and adapted by taking the brickwork down to the third storey, and mounting the body of an old post-mill on top, making for a most unusual structure. It stood on a mound in the yard of Bartrums, and was in the Chaplyn family for generations. The old post-mill had been shattered during a sharp tempest on July 31st 1834, and William Chaplyn, miller, maltster, corn and coal merchant, accordingly decided to combine the two mills into one. This would appear to have worked very successfully, and the business eventually passed to Albert, his grandson, who had the mill pulled down after the First World War. The brickwork remained until demolished by the Lincoln family about 1935, and the mound on which it stood was only removed some two years ago.
Diss Antiquarian Society News Sheet - Spring 1973

Enclosure map 1817: Post Mill - Edmund Chaplin, miller

Parish map 1830: Post Mill - Edmund Chaplin, miller

Pigot's 1830: William Chaplyn, miller, POST MILL

31st July 1834: Postmill severely damaged during a storm and blown over

c.1834: Mill buck possibly used within the structure of the composite mill built on the same site

If you have any memories, anecdotes or photos please let us know and we may be able to use them to update the site. By all means telephone 07836 675369 or

Nat Grid Ref TM12807915
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Copyright © Jonathan Neville 2006