The present mill at Thrigby started life in the 1790s. It was built by the owner of Thrigby Hall, Robert Woolmer, and was used to mill wheat. It was a Post Mill, so called because of the 2ft square oak support that rises vertically through the round house roof. Post Mills date from the time of the Domesday book, but reached the peak of their design in the 18th and 19th
centuries, the best examples being found in Suffolk and Essex. Thereafter the brick built tower mill proved superior both in maintenance and internal arrangements to the cramped post mill.
The mainpost supports the Mill body, or "buck" as it is known locally, which houses on it's three floors the machinery, millstones, grain and flour. The roundhouse at
ground level was a later addition to give protection to the trestle and to provide further storage.
The Mill was taken down in 1892. It was riddled with deathwatch beetle and the trestle needed replacing. Its upkeep, which required large section timbers and expensive specialist millwrights, coupled with competition from new roller mills such as those at nearby Herringby and Great Yarmouth made continued milling at Thrighy uneconomic.
When the new owners decided to rebuild the mill in 1982, the roundhouse was the first part of the mill to be restored.
Once fully restored it will be one of only two Post mills in Norfolk, the other being at Garboldisham.
The owners are pleased to allow visitors to climb to the top of the Mill, but please obtain their permission first. From the top of the mill there are fine views over Broadland. To the south is Breydon water and the Halvergate marshes. Protests during the 1970s and 1980s over the ploughing up of the marshes succeeded, and they became on the first officially designated environmentally
sensitive areas.
To the North is a large expanse of rich agricultural land. The large open fields you se today designed to
accommodate modern machinery, are very different from the 18th century pattern of small fields which would have existed when the mill was first built.
This information was copied from the
display board next to the mill and was created
as part of an award winning community project involving the pupils of Flegg High School, Martham. The Filby Society, and Norfolk County Council.
