Briggate Mill Under Threat from

New Village Resident

 

During the summer of 2007, a new resident, David Turner, moved into the village of Briggate, near Worstead, North Walsham in Norfolk to a property close to the site of the old watermill and steam mill. 

 

Aerial view of Briggate Mill site - April 2007

prior to fencing in.

Photo courtesy of www.mike-page.co.uk

 

By November the villagers noticed the mill site had been securely fenced in and had allegedly been claimed by Mr Turner. Whereas the true owner lives in another county.

 

Fence erected around the Briggate mill site - Nov 2007

On the weekend of the 5th January 2008, a 360 mechanical tracked excavator and skip were used to clear and level the over grown site surrounding the mill buildings. A considerable amount of debris is alleged to have ended up in the canal. The disruption has threatened the existence of, what is believed to be, the only known colony of Black Water Voles in England.

Clearance work in progress on land surrounding the Briggate mill site - Jan 5th 2008

The villagers fear that Mr Turner is trying to "land grab" Briggate mill and an area on the opposite side of the road that used to be the mill dam with a view to developing the site for profit.

 

Villagers inspecting the clearance of the site surrounding the remains of the granary and watermill - Jan 13th 2008.

 

All that remains of the security fence is the concrete posts after its removal on January 11th. The extent of the clearance work is clearly visible. It has also exposed the remaining brickwork of the old watermill to the front of the site adjoining the road, with the derelict granary towering above.

 

Villagers gather for the on-site meeting with Norman Lamb MP and Cath Wilkins NNDC - Jan 13th 2008

 

Norman Lamb MP North Norfolk, spoke on Radio Norfolk publicising the situation at Briggate on Sunday 13th January prior to his on-site meeting with villagers to access the situation for himself. The meeting was well attended with anything up to about 100 people there to express their concerns.

 

 

Please click on www.norfolkmills.co.uk/Watermills/briggate.html

 

 

CONGRATULATIONS!

 

Mike Thurlow

 

 

National Winner

of

UK TV Food Heroes Award

 

Mike Thurlow, who has run Letheringsett Watermill, the last working watermill in the county for the last 20 years, celebrates as he was officially named as the nation's Local Food Hero in the competition run by the television channel UKTV Food. Although the standard of the competition was extremely high, Food Judges including Gary Rhodes, praised Mike and awarded him a £40,000 cheque. This will allow Mike to develop plans he's had for the mill for a while, including buying a third set of mill stones to increase the production of flour by 50% and to create a children's virtual reality centre, an educational facility to increase younger visitors knowledge about where food comes from and how it is produced.

See Friends of Letheringsett Mill website for more details and how to join.

Thanks to everyone who voted on line for Mike at Letheringsett!

 

 

Letheringsett Watermill