Skip over navigation

View a printer friendly version of this page

Norfolk Heritage Explorer

Record Details

NHER Number:	15162
Type of record:	Monument
Name:	Site of medieval windmill

Summary

This is the site of a medieval and post medieval windmill that is marked on 18th and 19th century maps. The road used to be called Mill Lane or Windmill Hill and it is thought there may have been a mill here since the 13th century. The last mill was demolished in 1893.

Images - none

Location

Grid Reference:	TF 9872 1375
Map Sheet:	TF91SE
Parish:	DEREHAM, BRECKLAND, NORFOLK

Full description

Site of wind mill.
Marked on (S1).
E. Rose (NAU), 21 August 1979.

Known as Mill Lane Mill. Possibly a mill site since 13th century. Shown as an open trestle post mill on (S2).

Later became a post mill on a roundhouse. Demolished 1890.
Information from [1].
E. Rose (NAU), 2 February 1982.

Foundations remain in the garden of 37a and 37b Quebec Road, which was Mill Lane or Windmill Hill until 1850. 'Brinkley' was the millers house. Old photograph in (S3) shows the latest mill before demolition.
E. Rose (NAU), 5 June 1984.

A survey conducted by the Bishop of Ely in 1250 indicates that there was a postmill in East Dereham at this time, but it remains uncertain whether it would have occupied the same location as the later mill. A Dereham mill also appears in the Bishop of Ely's manorial records 1558-9, and a manorial courtbook mentions a windmill in 1626.
The mill at Qeubec Road (then Mill Lane or Windmill Hill) is depicted on the 1757 Dereham Town Map (S2) as an open testle postmill with mill house. By 1781, the mill was depicted on a Map of Commons and Waste Lands as a postmill on a roundhouse. The original mill likely had common sails, but it was later fitted with two pairs of double shuttered sails, each with 8 bays of 3 shutters that drove two pairs of stones. Two pairs of stones were documented in a lease of 1761, only one pair in 1834, but two pairs are again described in 1860. The mill was sold several times between 1834 and 1891, and was demolished around 1893
See (S4) for additional information.
H. Hamilton (NLA), 01 April 2008.

Monument Types

POST MILL (18th Century to 19th Century - 1757 AD to 1890 AD)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status - none

Sources and further reading

---	Record Card: NAU Staff. 1974-1988. Norfolk Archaeological Index Primary Record Card.
---	Photograph: pre 1890?. Quebec Mill, Dereham.
---	Secondary File: Secondary File.
<S1>	Publication: Faden, W. and Barringer, J. C. 1989. Faden's Map of Norfolk in 1797.
<S2>	Map: 1757. Dereham Town Map.
<S3>	Monograph: Cook, M.. 1984. Looking Back at Dereham. 2.
<S4>	Website: Neville, J.. 2005. East Dereham Quebec Road postmill. http://www.norfolkmills.co.uk/Windmills/east-dereham-quebec-rd-postmill.html. 31 March 2008.