—
Summerhouse built on base
A circular summerhouse was later built on the former mill base.
Site overview
The Downham Market smock mill site is recorded as the location of a windmill built in 1828. The mill was a smock mill and remained wind-powered until around 1933. It was dismantled in 1938, ending its life as a working windmill structure.
A circular summerhouse was later built on the surviving base, preserving the outline of the former mill position rather than the mill itself. The available evidence identifies the construction date, mill type, end of wind operation, dismantling date and later reuse of the base, but does not provide detailed machinery, ownership or production history. The site is therefore principally a recorded former windmill site with a visible later structure marking the former base.
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
The Downham Market site was occupied by a smock windmill built in 1828. The recorded evidence identifies it as a post-medieval or nineteenth-century smock mill powered by wind until around 1933. No detailed description of its sails, cap, stones or internal machinery has been identified, and the surviving record is mainly concerned with its broad chronology and later physical survival.
The mill continued as a wind-powered structure into the early twentieth century before being dismantled in 1938. After dismantling, the circular base remained sufficiently legible to be reused, and a circular summerhouse was built on it. That later structure now marks the mill's former position.
The site does not preserve a complete mill body or working machinery, but it retains evidence of the former mill footprint through the reused base. The known chronology establishes a clear sequence from construction in 1828, through wind-powered operation until about 1933, to dismantling in 1938 and later domestic or garden reuse of the base.
Timeline
1828
Smock mill built
A smock windmill was built on the site in 1828.
1933
Wind power ended
The smock mill was powered by wind until around 1933.
1938
Mill dismantled
The windmill was dismantled in 1938.
Sources and records
Norfolk Heritage Explorer: Site of post-19th-century smock mill
Historic map and monument record evidence
Historic map and monument record evidence