1850–1869
Drainage windpump built
The tower drainage mill is recorded as a mid nineteenth-century windpump.
Site overview
Tunstall Dyke tower drainage mill is a mid nineteenth-century windpump. The surviving structure is a tapering circular tarred brick tower of four storeys. Recorded features include segmental-arched windows to the lower floors, curb, track and rack, and internal iron machinery.
The remaining mechanism includes a cast-iron pit wheel and horizontal drive shaft linked to a scoop wheel with wooden starts and floats. By the mid 1980s the mill was recorded as derelict, but its tower and significant drainage machinery survived. The site is mapped as a tower mill at Tunstall Dyke and forms part of the Broads drainage-mill landscape.
Map
Map markers and directions links are provided for location reference only and do not indicate public access or permission to enter a site.
No site photograph is currently available. Images will be added as field visits are carried out.
History
Tunstall Dyke tower drainage mill was built as a mid nineteenth-century windpump. It is a tapering circular tower of tarred brick, rising four storeys. The tower has segmental-arched windows to the ground, first, and second floors, with surviving curb, track, and rack elements at the top.
Internally, the mill retained drainage machinery including a cast-iron pit wheel and a horizontal drive shaft connected to a scoop wheel with wooden starts and floats. By 1985 it was recorded as derelict, and it was photographed in 1988. The evidence establishes that the tower survived with important internal mechanical remains after the end of wind-powered drainage operation.
The searched sources do not give a precise construction year, final working date, or full ownership history, but they identify the structure as a mid nineteenth-century drainage windpump at Tunstall Dyke.
Timeline
1985
Derelict tower recorded
The mill was recorded as derelict, with its tarred brick tower, curb, track, rack, pit wheel, drive shaft, and scoop-wheel connection surviving.
1988
Mill photographed
The surviving drainage mill was photographed at Tunstall Dyke.
Sources and records
Norfolk Mills page: Halvergate Tunstall Dyke tower drainage windmill
WindmillWorld entry: Tunstall tower mill
WindmillWorld county list: Windmills of Norfolk
WindmillWorld entry: Tunstall tower mill
WindmillWorld county list: Windmills of Norfolk