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History
The parish of Pakenham is now unique in Britain in having both a working
watermill and a working windmill. The Domesday Survey, in 1086, records
that there was a watermill on the site of the present building; thus
corn has been ground here for at least 900 years.
Though no proof exists, it has been suggested, by archaeologists
excavating the nearby Roman Fort site, that there may have been a mill
somewhere near the present site during the period AD 43-60.
The first written reference to Pakenham occurs more than a century
before Domesday, when Pakenham was mentioned in the will of Theodred,
Bishop of Suffolk. In 1060, six years prior to the Norman Conquest,
Pakenham was gifted to the Abbey of St. Edmundsbury by Edward the
Confessor. The Domesday Book records Pakenham as being one of the
“Winter Mills”, the other being Thedwastre. Why a “winter mill”? Maybe
the stream on which the mill stood had sufficient flow of water to turn
the wheel only in winter?
It
seems that the Abbey remained landlord of Pakenham till the dissolution
of the monasteries during the early 16th century, when Pakenham reverted
to the Crown.
In 1545, the Manor of Pakenham was bought by Robert Spring, a
clothier, and member of the well-known Lavenham family.
It was possibly around this period, that the Tudor watermill, whose
foundations are still extant, was constructed.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, milling
seems to have continued, with the present buildings replacing the Tudor
mill in the late 18th century. In 1813, Charles Lowe leased the mill
from its then owner. As part of the lease, he had to spend £400 in
modernising the mill, and left his initials, and the date 1814, carved
in stone at the end of the present building.
In 1903, ownership of the mill and the
farmhouse was split. The mill was used latterly mainly as a livestock
food production unit, being closed only during World War II. It ceased
to be a working mill in 1974.
Present Day.
The Suffolk Preservation Society became
concerned about the future of the Mill in the early l970s, and, in 1978,
with the aid of a substantial anonymous donation, bought it from the
last owner, Brian Marriage. Following restoration, completed in early
1980s, the Society won a prestigious Europa Nostra Diploma in the 1985.
The mill is still a working mill, and
flour is sold to visitors. Wheat is stoneground into wholemeal flour on
a regular basis by a group of volunteer millers who work every Thursday
morning, and visitors are made very welcome.
Equipment and Power.
Apart from electric light, all power
comes from water. The water which powers the mill wheel comes from
Pakenham Fen, which, in turn, is fed from natural springs and drainage
water. The water then joins the River Blackbourne, which
continues past Ixworth, before joining the Little Ouse, and thence into
the Wash.
The Mill also has a large 17 h.p. Blackstone oil engine made c1904 which
was brought from another mill and installed at Pakenham in the 1930s.
This replaced a steam engine and was used as auxiliary power in times of
drought or when the pool was frozen. .
If you have enjoyed visiting the
watermill, please also take the opportunity to visit another Suffolk
Preservation Society property, also owned by the Suffolk Building
Preservation
Trust: Little Hall, Market Place,
Lavenham, Sudbury. Tel; 01787 247179
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