A wander among Suffolk mills, skies and harvest.
Suffolk is known for its BIG skies and has inspired many artists to pitch their easels in the countryside and paint what is before them - or pick up a camera and try to capture the image as I do!
Harvest time is one of the good times to see Suffolk skies at their best, with the contrast between golden corn and blue sky with white fluffy clouds. Magic!
Masters of air - the windmill and aircraft
Pakenham Mill is a Grade II listed tower mill which has been restored and is maintained in working order.
It was built in 1831.Clement Goodrich was the miller in 1846, when he took on an apprentice. The mill came into the ownership of the Bryant family in 1885. A steam engine was used as auxiliary power. In 1947, the mill was nearly tail-winded, but the miller managed to turn the cap in time to avoid this happening.
What, you may ask, is that?Well, apparently a windmill caught with the wind blowing towards the rear side of its sails, has a risk of reversal of rotation and consequential damage. It also carries a risk of the CAP blowing off a TOWER or SMOCK mill if the wind is strong.
The mill was restored in 1950, with a new weather beam fitted by Amos Clarke, the Ipswich millwright. At this time the swing-pot neck bearing from Buxhall mill was installed. A second-hand stock from Thurston post mill was fitted at this time and a gallery constructed around the cap. The gallery was based on that at Wendover mill, Buckinghamshire. New sails were also fitted.
Further restoration took place in 1961, aided by grants from Suffolk County Council, the Ministry of Works. The work was conditional on the Bryant family continuing to work the mill. The restoration work was carried out by R Thompson & Sons Ltd, millwrights of Alford, Lincolnshire. The copper covered cap was rebuilt and clad in aluminium for maintenance reasons. A new stock and two new sails were made, and the fantail rebuilt. The mill was struck by lightning in June 1971, a stock being split and a sail damaged. The sack chain saved the mill from being burnt down by giving a route for the lightning to earth. When the mill was repaired, a lightning conductor was added to the mill.
The most recent restoration of Pakenham windmill was completed in May 2000. The £60,000 cost of the work was 80% funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Pakenham also boasts a Water Mill.
This is the oldest surviving flour mill in Suffolk, where once there were many. There has been a watermill in Pakenham for almost a thousand years, and for all that time millers on this site have been using the simple technology of water power to produce stone-ground wholemeal flour for local people. Owned today by the Suffolk Building Preservation Trust, a team of dedicated volunteers continues this long tradition.
Water coming mainly from underground springs on Pakenham Fen is diverted into our huge millpond and used to turn the 16ft high cast iron waterwheel that drives the millstones.
Flour milling goes on all the year round. We are open to visitors during the summer months. Inside the mill all the machinery is visible (and safely guarded) and a friendly guide will show you round and explain how it all works. If you come on a Thursday morning between about 10.00 and 11.30 you are likely to see the mill actually working and the flour being produced and bagged up for sale. You should also take a look at the old kitchens in the Miller’s House displayed as they were in the past.
Another St Mary - this time at Walsham-Le-Willows
When William the Conqueror ordered a written survey of England in 1086, Walsham (the Saxon name) already had a church. A church was here when that Domesday Survey was made in 1086.
Many pre–conquest Suffolk churches were built of flint, the natural stone of East Anglia. That building has long gone, though the materials have been used and reused over the centuries. A recognisable fragment from the late 1100s can be seen in the north aisle. The tower and the font belong to the 1300s, but the church had its greatest make-over from about 1400, when the builders were busy, on and off, for a century.
The oak roof is one of the finest in a county famous for its church roofs. The tie-beams alternate with the stubby hammer beams which take the thrust from above, and originally they were decorated with carved angels.
The basic roof was finished by 1450, but additional decorations were added in 1475, the year that John de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, became Lord of the Manor. The King, Edward IV was his brother-in-law, and as a loyal gesture he nailed up the King’s favourite badge, the rose en soleil. This device can be seen on most of the roof-braces. The paint too, now beautifully faded, dates from 1475.
The carved angels on the hammer beams were removed by the churchwardens in 1538, acting on the orders of Edward IV’s grandson, Henry VIII. The carvings, then less than a century old, must have been lifted off quite carefully and the wooden tenons which fixed them are still in place, and can be plainly seen.
Eight-sided pillars or piers frame the nave. Mostly I see round ones in other churches.
The pretty church in Rattlesden which we will return to explore another day. A beautiful village though.
What on earth are these I wondered? The Primitive Methodist Church is a body of Holiness Christians within the Methodist tradition, which began in England in the early 19th century, with the influence of American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–1834).
In the United States, the Primitive Methodist Church had eighty-three parishes and 8,487 members in 1996. In Great Britain and Australia, the Primitive Methodist Church merged with other denominations, to form the Methodist Church of Great Britain in 1932 and the Methodist Church of Australasia in 1901. The latter subsequently merged into the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977.
Upthorpe Mill is a Grade II listed post mill and Scheduled Ancient Monument
Upthorpe Mill was built in 1751. It was originally built as an open trestle post mill. In 1818 it was moved to its present site in Stanton. At some point in time the Common sails were replaced by Double Patent sails, a roundhouse later being added and a fantail fitted to turn the mill into wind automatically. The mill ended its commercial working life on a single pair of sails. It was disused by 1918 and in 1937 was becoming derelict. The mill was worked during the war, but ceased to be used in 1946 as it was unprofitable. By the late 1960s, the mill was again becoming derelict, and the fantail was carefully dismantled. In 1979, emergency repairs were carried out by Suffolk Mills Group and in 1986 the mill was bought by Richard Duke. Restoration work was carried out and the mill was able to grind again in 1990. In 1993, the mill was bought by Peter Dolman and further restoration work was carried out.
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