East Ruston towermill - East Ruston, Norfolk
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SMacB
N 52° 48.559 E 001° 30.053
31U E 398953 N 5852111
East Ruston towermill was built for John Rudd Turner in 1868 by millwright Thomas Smithdale of St Anne's Foundry, King Street, Norwich. It was said that it was originally fitted with cloth sails before later being converted to double shuttered sails.
Waymark Code: WMQRJF
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/24/2016
Views: 2
East Ruston towermill, private property, viewable from the roadside. Here viewed looking east from Mill Road.
"East Ruston towermill was built for John Rudd Turner in 1868 by millwright Thomas_Smithdale of St Anne's Foundry, King Street, Norwich and it was said that it was originally fitted with cloth sails before later being converted to double shuttered sails. If this is true it means that the mill was the last known newly built mill to have started life with common sails. The mill was known locally as New Mill.
The six storey towermill was 64ft to the tip of the upper sail and built of red brick and by the late 1800s was powered by 4 double shuttered sails, each with 9 bays of 3 shutters that were struck by rack and pinion. The boat shaped cap had a petticoat and supported an 8 bladed fan and gallery. A stage was set around just above the second floor but dropped level at the loading door. The second floor was the stone floor that held three pairs of stones, two of which were later worked by steam power.
In 1926 the mill was still wind powered but by 1936 only one pair of sails remained, the mill having been struck by lightning. Production finally ceased in 1946 and the mill was derelict by 1949, although the machinery was not removed until about 1962."
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