Lockgate Mill - Windmill

Also known as: Freethorpe Mill Banham's Black Mill Duffel's Mill Freethorpe, Norfolk Brick tower wind pump no sails Lockgate Mill a is a wind pump located on the Halvergate Marshes in the detached parish of Freethorpe within the Norfolk Broads. The current mill at this location was built somewhere between 1800 and 1825 under the name 'Freethorpe Mill', it is four storeys high and built of red brick tarred black. The structure stands at 35 feet to the curb and the diameter of the base is 24 feet, housing two doors and 4 windows. A farm once stood next to the mill, it was known as Lockgate Farm and was demolished in 1981 after many years of being derelict.

Public domain image

When operational, the mill was driven by four patent sails that turned in a clockwise direction, these drove a 19ft diameter external scoopwheel with 7 inch paddles. Unusually for a mill on the halvergate marshes it didn't drain into the Halvergate Fleet even though it is only 800 yards from the connection of the fleet with Breydon water. Instead it drained Acle marshes that lie to the north of the mill.

The earliest recorded marshman of the mill was a Mr Dan Banham, followed subsequently by Mr Bob Banham. The Banham family ceased working the mill in the early 1920s and it was taken over for a short period by Mr Gordon Addison, who lived in the nearby Lockgate Farm. The final marshman that worked the mill was Mr Leonard Carter, who left the mill in the mid-1940s.

After Leonard Carter left the mill, it began to fall into disrepair. In 1953 the sails were blown off the mill in a gale and was left to deteriorate until a temporary aluminium cap was fitted in 1988 to protect the remains of the mill.

Today the mill still stands, and the aluminium cap is still in situ, However in 2001 a fire broke out inside the mill, due to vandals, this destroyed much of the remaining equipment on the inside of the mill and has blackened some of the external and internal brickwork. The scoopwheel is no longer in place, and remains of it can be seen beside the outside of the structure. The mill can be directly reached on the Yarmouth-Berney Arms path, however access is prohibited and a fence blocks access due to the unsafe state the structure is in.

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