1880
Smock drainage pump built
Horning Ferry Mill was built around 1880 by England's of Ludham as a smock drainage pump beside the River Bure.
Site overview
Horning Ferry Mill was a smock drainage pump on the bank of the River Bure. It was built around 1880 by England's of Ludham and became a well-known riverside landmark. The original structure had a tarred weatherboarded tower, a white cap and double-shuttered sails.
Its role was land drainage rather than corn milling. The pump had ceased working by 1935, when H. P. E. Neave converted it into a dwelling. The present structure no longer closely resembles the original drainage mill: the upper section is flared and Dutch-like, standing on a boarded single-storey base, with a boat-shaped cap, four dummy sails and a fantail.
It therefore survives as a heavily altered former windpump rather than as a working drainage mill.
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
Horning Ferry Mill stood on the bank of the River Bure and was built around 1880 as a smock drainage pump. It was constructed by England's of Ludham, one of the principal local millwrighting firms associated with Norfolk drainage mills. The original mill had a tarred weatherboarded tower, a white cap and double-shuttered sails, and its riverside position made it a familiar landmark at Horning Ferry.
The mill was built for drainage, not for corn milling, and formed part of the drainage landscape of the Bure valley. It was shown on the 1905 Ordnance Survey map as a windpump. The pump had ceased working before its conversion in 1935.
In that year H. P. E. Neave converted the structure into a dwelling. The conversion changed its appearance substantially. The surviving building has a flared upper section set on a boarded single-storey base, with a boat-shaped cap carrying four dummy sails and a fantail.
The current building records the site and approximate form of the former drainage windpump, but it no longer retains the working character of the original Horning Ferry smock pump.
Timeline
1905
Windpump mapped
The mill was marked as a windpump on the 1905 Ordnance Survey map.
1935
Working pump converted
After the pump ceased working, H. P. E. Neave converted the former windpump into a dwelling.
1935
Converted to dwelling
The former windpump was altered into a dwelling, with a flared upper section, boarded single-storey base, dummy sails and fantail.
Sources and records
Norfolk Mills: Horning Ferry drainage windmill
Ordnance Survey map evidence reproduced by Norfolk Mills
Ordnance Survey map evidence reproduced by Norfolk Mills