Roughton Mill Hill tower mill was probably built in 1814 when Robert Bourne Joy took the business over from his mother and it has a datestone inscribed RB Joy 1814 set above the stage door on the second floor. The site had earlier been occupied by two postmills that had stood together on the site - an earlier_mill and a later_mill.

The six storey red brick tower with its stage around the second floor was originally painted white but reverted to plain red brick in later years. The mill tower was only 56 feet high and had a domed cap, an eight bladed fan and three pairs of stones powered by four double shuttered sails each with ten bays of three shutters.

Tithe map 1838 - as redrawn by Harry Apling

Soon after the fire, Frederick William Press and his family emigrated to New Westminster in British Columbia, Canada.

When the refronted guttering was removed the date 1778 was found on the cistern. On the road side side of the outbuilding, the inscription R. Joy 1774 was found, this being the date Robert Joy took over the postmill.

Work commenced on renovating the tower during 1978 for use as the headquarters of the local scout group and a new building was erected adjoining the mill following the same lines as the old granary.
The foundation stone was laid by the Chief Scout, Sir William Gladstone on Sunday 9th July, 1978

A SCOUT group's future looks to be secure after a successful appeal to buy their headquarters in an old windmill. The plea for funds by the First Rural Scouts, launched last July, has raised almost £227,000 to buy Roughton Mill, near Cromer.
A 30-year lease, which gave the Scouts use of the building for a peppercorn rent, was coming to an end, leaving the group facing increased rent or the option to buy the mill for an agreed price of £200,000.
A rise in rent would have put too much strain on the group's resources and an outright purchase of the 194-year-old building was their only option, said Scout group chairman Dave Stow.
Although the Scouts were still looking for a further £16,255 to reach their appeal target - which would cover the cost of fire regulations, plasterwork and other fees. The money raised so far was enough to buy the mill from the present landlords and would be held in trust by the Scout Association.
Most of the money had been raised through charitable trusts, anonymous donations, youth projects pots and donations from the county Scout group.
The success of the appeal will mean that more than 100 Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Brownies and Guides can continue to use the mill each week doing activities such as camping, abseiling - off the highest abseiling tower in Norfolk and many other adventures.
Mr. Stow said that when the sale went through the Scout group would be able to carry on, which was in doubt if they had not raised the money.
Annabelle Dickson, North Norfolk News - Thursday, 1st May 2008

Major Anthony Gurney of Manor Farm Northrepps, was instrumental in the raising of the £200,000 necessary to buy the mill.

This was taken Easter 1982 or 3 and is of the 1st Wanstead Guide Company. We stayed for a week and had a fabulous time. Inside seemed so huge and I remember us all around the walls in our sleeping bags. I remember we went to the beach and saw a seal which for city girls was quite an amazing sight! We also went on the steam train at Sheringham and I have a photo of that somewhere which I'll try to find! One of our Guiders moved up to Norfolk and I often wonder if it was this camp that made her want to move.
Tracey James née King - 19th August 2008

Datestone on new building erected on the site of the old granary.

The stone above the window "RB JOY 1814" is not the original. When the mill was renovated in the 1970s for the Scouts, the original stone was broken - whether by the fire or just age. An identical replica was made and replaced into the arch when the windows were replaced (1977). The original stone is now set in the wall on the ground floor, inside the tower.
In the 1906 fire, the Fire Brigade was delayed because the horses which pulled the fire engine were also required to launch the Cromer lifeboat which had been called out for a sea disaster. I recall that the Fire Brigade was in the charge of a Mr Frost. I found this in the archives of Eastern Counties Newspapers when I did some research in the 1970s.
I was Group Scout Leader at the time of the rebuild in the 1970s.
Richard Baker - 16th January 2009

Robert Copeman of Itteringham, had a daughter who married into the Spurrell family.
Since then I've been working on a book about Bessingham, where the Spurrells owned an estate from 1766 till 1970.  One of the Spurrells, John, married his first cousin Elizabeth Joy of Roughton in 1814.  Her father Robert Joy and brother Robert Bourne Joy ran the mill there for many years. 
Robert Bourne Joy, a bachelor, died in 1863 and his sister Sarah, a spinster, died in 1867: these were the last surviving members of the Joy family and their next of kin was their nephew Daniel Spurrell of Bessingham.
On a recent trip to the Norfolk Record Office I discovered the collection MC 97/15, 538x3 (letters of Benjamin Bond Cabbell of Cromer Hall).  There is a fair amount of correspondence back and forth between B. B. Cabbell and the Norwich solicitors Keith & Blake, who were acting on Daniel Spurrell's behalf, and some letters from Daniel too.
It appears that Daniel sold Roughton Mill to B. B. Cabbell as well as property in Overstrand and Cromer that he had inherited from his aunt Sarah Joy for £3,750, the transaction being completed at the end of 1868.
The Roughton page of your website includes an 1867 advert for the sale of the mill, but it appears from the letters that B. B. Cabbell made a private offer to Daniel Spurrell which included purchase of the Overstrand and Cromer properties. 
The letters also mention the draft of a 1-year lease by Frank Brown beginning at Christmas 1868, although this document is not included in the bundle.
My understanding is that Daniel Spurrell used the money he inherited from his Joy aunt and uncle, as well as from the sale of their properties, to build his new Manor House at Bessingham in 1870, having also bought the right to be lord of the manor in 1867, so the Joys are an important part of my story.
Jonathan Spurrell - 18th June 2013

The Spurrells were related by marriage to the Joys, who owned Roughton Mill in the 18th and 19th centuries.  When the last Joy died in the 1860s the mill passed to Daniel Spurrell, who later sold it to Benjamin Bond Cabbell of Cromer Hall. 
Jonathan Spurrell - 9th November 2016

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