River Nar - Mills

Mills

The river has provided the power for several mills over many centuries. Working downstream from the source, the first mill was at Newton by Castle Acre. The site was mentioned in the Domesday Book. The present mill was built in brick with a pantiled roof, and a mill house, built with stone from a ruined priory, was attached. The mill was then enlarged, resulting in it having a different roof line to the house. It was used for kibbling corn in the 1930s. By 1972, when the mill was restored, the mill house was just a shell with no roof, and it had been demolished by 1977. A new mill house was built in the 1990s by a Norfolk historian, in a similar style to the original. Most of the machinery, including the wheel, were still in place in 2003, although not operational.

West Acre mill was a four-storey building, with a brick-built ground floor and the upper storeys built in weatherboarded timber. It had a pantiled roof, with a mill house attached. The ground floor of the mill dated from the 1400s, and appeared to be built from material obtained from West Acre Abbey. The water wheel drove four pairs of grinding stones, although only two were used in later years. The four-level stone driving frame, which allowed all four wheels to be operated at once, was noted as an outstanding example of milling machinery in the 1950s, when the building was surveyed, but it was demolished in 1959, as it was deemed to be unsafe. The mill house remains.

Narborough Mill was a large three-storey building built in 1780. Charles Tyssen added an extension in 1845, but failed to provide adequate foundations, and the addition gradually sank until the roof collapsed in 1980. In 1887, there was an engine house on the front of the mill, but this then became a house for the miller. After the collapse of the extension, thirteen 50-foot (15 m) piles were used to stabilise the rest of the building before restoration began. A 14-foot (4.3 m) water wheel drove a horizontal shaft, which powered four sets of millstones, later extended to six. Although the mill ceased to operate in the early 1950s, most of the machinery remains intact.

Narborough Bone Mill was further downstream, and did not have any road access, as bones were delivered by boat, and the ground bonemeal was taken away by boat. It was built in the early nineteenth century, and was used to grind bones from local slaughterhouses, whalebones from the Kings Lynn whaling industry, and bones from cemeteries in Hamburg. The mill ceased to work in 1884 or soon afterwards, when the Nar Valley Drainage Board built a sluice near the mouth of the river, preventing use of the river by boats. Despite this, the wheel remains as a prominent feature on the bank opposite the towpath.

The final mill was at Pentney, and it was originally owned by the nearby priory. After the demise of the priory, the village gradually moved towards Narborough, leaving the mill isolated, and it ceased to be used in the 1800s. The remains show that it was built of white brick, and trade directories from the 1800s show that it was used as a pub once it ceased to be a mill.