Refurb Projects - November 2018

PROJECTS
Restoration of Grade II* listed mill using
£554k Heritage Lottery Fund money begins
People will be able to visit the
restored Stracey Arms Mill
near Great Yarmouth thanks
to Norfolk County Council’s
successful bid for £554,600 from the
Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
Works have begun to safeguard
the mill and create a building onsite
for people to learn about the history
of the mill and the surrounding
marshland. A programme of
workshops, day schools and
community events will begin in 2019
for people to learn more about the
mill, the local landscape, and the
marsh families who lived at the mill
site and worked on the surrounding
marshes.
A number of volunteer
opportunities, with full training, will
also be available for people
interested in looking after the mill.
Visitors will be able to make use of a
10 space car park to the east of the
mill which will itself be made more
accessible with the aid of an all
ability access ramp from the car
park to the mill. Work is expected to
be completed in 2021.
Councillor Martin Wilby,
Chairman of Norfolk County
Council’s Environment,
Development and Transport
Committee and Chairman of the
Norfolk Windmills Trust, said: “This
is a fantastic project that will allow
people to better understand the
history of Norfolk and its historic
marshes and distinctive Broads, and
I’m pleased it was made possible by
our bid to the Heritage Lottery
Fund.”
“Thanks to National Lottery
players, work is now well underway.
This is an exciting moment in the
restoration of such an important
building from Norfolk’s agricultural
past and the start of a great new
future” said Robyn Llewellyn, Head
of HLF East England.
The works to the Grade II* listed
mill, part of the £670,152 Mill and
Marsh Folk Project, have begun with
the removal of the old cap and sail
stocks which have been taken to the
millwright’s workshop to be assessed
and any sound timbers salvaged and
reused in the new cap.
The first phase of work, which
includes brickwork repairs, removal
of internal render, reinstatement of
one of the Second World War gun
loops and repairs to windows and
doors, is being led by conservation
builders R & J Hogg Ltd of Coney
Weston. The millwrighting work
which also includes new stocks, sails
and repairs to the turbine pump is
being carried out by local millwright
Richard Seago.
Smithdales the Acle millwrights. In
1965, Stracey Arms Mill was the
second mill to be gifted to Norfolk
County Council, to be cared for by
the newly formed Norfolk Windmills
Trust, by the widow of Sir Edward
Paulet Stracey, 7th Baronet Stracey
of Rackheath Hall.
Tel: 01603 228888
Email: pressoffice@norfolk.gov.uk
BACKGROUND HISTORY
The mill was built for Sir Henry
Stracey of Rackheath Hall by
millwright and engineer Richard
Barnes of Southtown Ironworks in
1883, at the height of mill
technology. The mill replaced an
earlier mill on the site and was built
to drain water off the surrounding
marshes into the River Bure. The mill
was last used to drain the marshes
in the 1940s. The mill served as a
fortified pillbox during the Second
World War with gun loops cut into
the tower, as part of the defences of
the local area. The mill gradually fell
into disrepair. Major repairs were
carried out in the 1960s by
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