Norfolk Mills - Smallburgh Wayford Bridge tower windmill

Smallburgh
Wayford Bridge
towermill

1906

Smallburgh tower windmill at Wayford Bridge was built as a 4 storey drainage mill with a scoop wheel but it also had a single pair of stones for grinding corn. The mill was built c.1850 by the millwrights Englands of Ludham, whose name is on the flood door. The single doored red brick tower was 30 feet high with a ground floor diameter of 15 feet with 18ins thick walls. Four double shuttered patent sails, each with 5 bays of 3 shutters and 1 bay of 4 shutters, struck by rack & pinion via a chain pole that drove a 14ft. diameter, 9ins wide scoop wheel and a pair of underdriven 3ft. 6ins. French burr stones on the first floor. The Norfolk boat shaped cap had a petticoat at the sides and an extension to the horizonatally boarded front. The cap was turned to wind by an 8 bladed fan.

29th December 2007

LIQUIDATION BY ARRANGEMENT
Henry Knights, Smallburgh, coal seller.

Norfolk Chronicle - 5th March 1881

29th December 2007

O.S. Map 2005
Image reproduced under licence from Ordnance Survey

On 23rd October 1975, Harry Apling visited the mill and recorded that the remains of a French burr stone were still outside the mill

... the mill that stood about a quarter of a mile above Wayford Bridge and a short way up Dilham Dyke on the left. It was a slender brick tower of 4 floors about 30 ft. high and probably built by Englands of Ludham whose name was on the flood door. It drove a 14 ft. diam. by 9 in. wide scoop wheel and a single pair of under drift French burr stones on the first floor through a great spur wheel and a nut which could be disengaged with a rigger while a slack belt sack hoist was driven from a bevel on the upright shaft.
Rex Wailes - Norfolk Windmills. Pt. II. Drainage Mills. Transactions of the Newcomen Society

Model of mill at Bridewell Museum, Norwich.
Eastern Daily Press - 22nd May 1974

Model now at Norfolk Rural Life Museum, Gressenhall.
Inaccurate in several details, e.g. Sails - striking chain attached to rear end of striking rod instead of endless chain over Y wheel with rack & pinion.
Harry Apling - 1980

PROPERTY MARKET COUNTY

WAYFORD BRIDGE, Near Stalham. Brick built WINDMILL (without sails or cap), with planning permission for conversion to dwelling, right of way to 20ft river mooring. £5000
HOWLETT & EDRICH, Acle.
Eastern Daily Press - 19th May 1978

On 16th March 1979, Mrs. Valerie Horsnell of Happisburgh Common, wrote to Harry Apling to say Mr. & Mrs. T. B. Horsnell had recently bought the property with a view of converting it to holiday accommodation.

Broads Authority planning committee approval for new cap, fanstage and sails subject to submission of detailed plans. (Summary)
Eastern Daily Press - 3rd March 1984

White's 1864: Henry Knights, beer house, Wayford Bridge

White's 1883: Elijah Knights, farmer
White's 1883: Henry Knights, shopkeeper & beerseller

Kelly's 1892: Henry Knights, beer retailer & carter

c.1850: Mill built by Englands, millwrights of Ludham

1850: Eli Knights, miller

White's 1864: Henry Knights, corn miller

1863: Henry Knights, miller, coal merchant & beer retailer

1881: Henry Knights insolvent

1883: Press Bros., millers

O.S. map 1887: Draining Pump

1888: Press Bros., millers

White's 1890: Press Bros., millers, coal & corn merchants and maltsters; and North Walsham

May 1978: Mill advertised for sale for £5,000

1984: Broads Authority approved the installation of a new cap fanstage & sails

1997: Mill empty with beams on 4 floors, attached to new bungalow for holiday accommodation

2007: Mill tower attached to bungalow; some windows missing and others with sashes roughly inserted

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 01263 713658 or

Nat Grid Ref TG34402480

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