Wicklewood High Street Tower Mill Wicklewood · Norfolk · England

Wicklewood High Street Towermill was built in 1845–46 by Richard Mann. It was a five-storey tarred brick tower, 43 feet high, with a ground-floor diameter of 17 feet. The tower originally had two ground-floor doors, one of which was later blocked, probably when an external auxiliary engine drive was introduced. The mill had a Norfolk boat-shaped cap with gallery and petticoat, a six-bladed left-handed fantail, striking chain wheel and tailpole. Its four double-shuttered sails replaced the common sails with which the mill was first built. The sails were 63 feet long on 52-foot stocks and drove two pairs of overdriven stones. One pair was French burr, while the other used a French burr runner over a Peak bedstone. The cast-iron windshaft was 15 feet 2 inches long. A second pair of French burr stones and an oat crusher were set on the first floor and driven by an external engine.

The tithe award of 1845 named Richard Mann as owner and occupier of the property, while John Browning Mallett was the first listed miller in 1846. Mann mortgaged the mill property in 1850, and the mill was later associated with John Mallett, William Palmer, James Doughty, Henry Buck, William Vout, Walter Farrow, and others. In 1882 Mann sold the mill and house to Samuel Winter for £355. By 1904 a Burrell 7 h.p. portable steam engine had been installed in a clay-lump and timber engine shed, driving additional machinery. In 1906 William Wade bought the mill for £330. Under the Wade family it worked as a grist mill, grinding local farmers' corn and returning meal for feed. In 1911 the brake wheel and Peak bedstone from Silfield Towermill were installed. Around 1920 the steam engine was replaced by a Shanks 12/14 h.p. paraffin engine.

The mill was still working in the late 1930s and was listed as operated by W. Wade & Son in 1937. It ceased working around 1942, shortly before or around the time of William Wade's death, when changing farming practice made the business uneconomic. By 1949 the mill was derelict. On 16 October 1977 William Wade's granddaughter, Margaret Edwards, handed the mill to the Norfolk Windmills Trust for restoration and preservation. John Lawn restored the mill for the Trust between February 1979 and July 1981. A new cap and frame were fitted on 12 November 1980, and new sails were fitted in 1981. The sails were removed in 2002 because of rot, the cap was removed for renovation in 2005, and the restored cap and a new upright shaft were fitted on 21 July 2006. The sails were reinstalled on 23 October 2012, returning the mill to a more complete external form.