1839
Fakenham tower mill recorded
The Fakenham tower mill is listed with 1839 as its first mention or construction date.
Site overview
Fakenham towermill stood just north of Holt Road, close to the town centre. Norfolk Mills describes it as a five-storey tower mill, with the top three storeys built onto the existing two-storey octagonal base of a smock mill that had been demolished to make way for the new tower mill, possibly after a fire. The mill used four patent sails to power two pairs of 4-foot French burr stones, a 20-inch flour mill, a bean crusher and a grindstone.
A bake office was also run on the site. The Norfolk county windmill list records the Fakenham tower mill as first mentioned or built in 1839 and last recorded in 1920. No detailed later closure account, demolition sequence or surviving structural description has been identified in the consulted sources.
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
Fakenham towermill is recorded as a five-storey mill standing just north of Holt Road, close to Fakenham town centre. Norfolk Mills states that the upper three storeys were built onto the existing two-storey octagonal base of a smock mill. That earlier smock mill had been demolished to make way for the new tower mill, possibly following a fire.
The tower mill used four patent sails. Its machinery included two pairs of 4-foot French burr stones, a 20-inch flour mill, a bean crusher and a grindstone. A bake office was also run on the site, indicating that the windmill formed part of a wider milling and baking business.
The county windmill list records a Fakenham smock mill first mentioned in 1818 and demolished around 1848, and a Fakenham tower mill first mentioned or built in 1839 and last recorded in 1920. The consulted sources do not provide a complete ownership sequence, named millwright, final working date, demolition date or present survival statement for the tower mill. The record is therefore limited to the documented tower-mill structure, its conversion from an earlier smock-mill base, its machinery, its associated bake office and its recorded nineteenth- to early twentieth-century date range.
Timeline
1839
Tower mill worked with patent sails
The tower mill used four patent sails to drive two pairs of French burr stones and associated machinery.
1920
Tower mill last recorded
The Fakenham tower mill is listed with 1920 as its last recorded date.
Sources and records
Norfolk Mills record: Fakenham towermill
Windmill World record: Fakenham tower mill
Wikipedia list: List of windmills in Norfolk
Windmill World record: Fakenham tower mill
Wikipedia list: List of windmills in Norfolk