Cley Windmill is a grade II* listed tower mill

Tower mill

A tower mill is a type of windmill which consists of a brick or stone tower, on top of which sits a roof or cap which can be turned to bring the sails into the wind....

 at Cley next the Sea

Cley next the Sea

Cley next the Sea is a village on the River Glaven in Norfolk, England, 4 miles north-west of Holt and east of Blakeney. The main A149 coast road runs through the centre of the village, causing congestion in the summer months due to the tight, narrow streets. It lies within the Norfolk Coast AONB...

, Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 which has been converted to residential accommodation.

History

Cley windmill was built in the early 19th century. It was not marked on William Faden's map of Norfolk published in 1797. The first mention was an advert in the Norfolk Chronicle of 26 June 1819, where the mill was for sale, described as "newly erected" and in the ownership of the Farthing family. The mill was not sold and remained the property of the Farthing family, until 1875, when Dorothy Farthing, the then owner, died. The mill was bought by the miller, Stephen Barnabas Burroughes. It was worked by the Burroughes family until c1912, when the business was transferred to their windmill at Holt.

In 1921, the windmill was sold by the Burroughes Brothers to Mrs Sarah Maria Wilson for the sum of £350 and she had the mill converted to a holiday home. The architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 responsible for the conversion was Cecil Upcher. The machinery was removed, with the gear wheels being cut in half and used as decoration within the mill.

The mill was inherited by Lt Col

Lieutenant colonel

Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...

 Hubert Blount, in 1934. On 31 January 1953

North Sea flood of 1953

The 1953 North Sea flood was a major flood caused by a heavy storm, that occurred on the night of Saturday 31 January 1953 and morning of 1 February 1953. The floods struck the Netherlands, Belgium, England and Scotland.A combination of a high spring tide and a severe European windstorm caused a...

, the mill was flooded to a depth of at least 8 feet (2.44 m). In 1960, Norfolk County Council and the Pilgrim Trust

Pilgrim Trust

The Pilgrim Trust is a London-based charitable trust. It was founded in 1930 by a two million pound grant by Edward Harkness, an American philanthropist. The trust's first secretary was former civil servant, Thomas Jones....

 both made grants to enable the sails to be replaced., the council granting £500 and the trust granting £300 towards a total cost of £1,500. The work was done by R Thompson & Son, the Alford

Alford, Lincolnshire

- Notable residents :* Captain John Smith who lived in nearby Willoughby* Anne Hutchinson, pioneer settler and religious reformer in the United States* Thomas Paine, who was an excise officer in the town....

, Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

 millwright

Millwright

A millwright is a craftsman or tradesman engaged with the construction and maintenance of machinery.Early millwrights were specialist carpenters who erected machines used in agriculture, food processing and processing lumber and paper...

s. Further grants were received by Lt Col Blount from Norfolk County Council in 1963 and 1971.

Lt Col Blount died on 1 February 1979 and the mill was inherited by Colonel Charles Blount, of Andover, Hampshire

Andover, Hampshire

Andover is a town in the English county of Hampshire. The town is on the River Anton some 18.5 miles west of the town of Basingstoke, 18.5 miles north-west of the city of Winchester and 25 miles north of the city of Southampton...

. The mill was offered for sale in May 1982, but did not sell. In 1983, planning permission

Planning permission

Planning permission or planning consent is the permission required in the United Kingdom in order to be allowed to build on land, or change the use of land or buildings. Within the UK the occupier of any land or building will need title to that land or building , but will also need "planning...

 and listed building consent was sought from North Norfolk District Council to turn the mill and complex into a guesthouse and self-catering units. This was granted, with the mill opening as a guesthouse on 27 April 1983.

In 1986-87, the cap gallery, sails and fantail were renewed. Grants totalling £19,000 were given by English Heritage

English Heritage

English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...

 and Norfolk County Council towards an estimated cost of £45,000. The work was done by millwrights John Lawn and John Bond. In December 2006 the windmill was put up for sale for the sum of £1,500,000.

Description

Cley windmill is a five storey tower mill with a stage at second floor level, twenty feet above ground. It has a dome shaped cap with a gallery which was winded by an eight-bladed fantail

Windmill fantail

A Fantail is a small windmill mounted at right angles to the sails, at the rear of the windmill, and which turns the cap automatically to bring it into the wind. The fantail was patented in 1745 by Edmund Lee, a blacksmith working at Brockmill Forge near Wigan, England, and perfected on mills...

, ten feet six inches in diameter. The cap is now fixed and unable to turn to wind. There are four double Patent sails with a span of 70 ft, carried on stocks 56 feet (17.07 m) long. The inner pair have eight bays of three shutters and the outer pair have nine bays of two shutters and one of three shutters. In 1819 the sails powered two pairs of French burr millstone

Millstone

Millstones or mill stones are used in windmills and watermills, including tide mills, for grinding wheat or other grains.The type of stone most suitable for making millstones is a siliceous rock called burrstone , an open-textured, porous but tough, fine-grained sandstone, or a silicified,...

s, a flour mill and jumper but by 1876 this had been increased to 3 pairs of stones and a smut machine had been added.

Millers

• John Farthing 1819-22
• John Lee 1822-48
• William Edward Powell 1848-50
• Lawrence Randall 1853-72
• Stephen Barnabas Burroughes 1875-1900
• Burroughes Bros 1900-12

Reference for above:-

Public access

Cley windmill is open to the public as a guesthouse on a bed and breakfast

Bed and breakfast

A bed and breakfast is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast, but usually does not offer other meals. Since the 1980s, the meaning of the term has also extended to include accommodations that are also known as "self-catering" establishments...

 basis.

Culture and media

Cley windmill has become one of the enduring icon

Icon

An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...

s of North Norfolk

North Norfolk

North Norfolk is a local government district in Norfolk, United Kingdom. Its council is based in Cromer. The council headquarters can be found approximately out of the town of Cromer on the Holt Road.-History:...

. Its image has been used on everything from tea towels through to greetings cards, tins of biscuits and fudge

Fudge

Fudge is a type of Western confectionery which is usually very sweet, and extremely rich. It is made by mixing sugar, butter, and milk and heating it to the soft-ball stage at , and then beating the mixture while it cools so that it acquires a smooth, creamy consistency...

 to advertising between programs for the BBC. In October 1998 the BBC's world logo was replaced with a balloon seen flying over, initially, ten different locations in the UK, including Snowdon

Snowdon

Snowdon is the highest mountain in Wales, at an altitude of above sea level, and the highest point in the British Isles outside Scotland. It is located in Snowdonia National Park in Gwynedd, and has been described as "probably the busiest mountain in Britain"...

, the Forth Rail Bridge and Canary Wharf

Canary Wharf

Canary Wharf is a major business district located in London, United Kingdom. It is one of London's two main financial centres, alongside the traditional City of London, and contains many of the UK's tallest buildings, including the second-tallest , One Canada Square...

. Included as one of the locations was Cley Windmill. The films apparently cost £500,000 to make.

Cley windmill is licensed to hold wedding ceremonies

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

.

Cley windmill was owned by the grandfather and father of James Blunt

James Blunt

James Hillier Blount , better known by his stage name James Blunt, is an English singer-songwriter and musician, and former army officer, whose debut album, Back to Bedlam and single releases, including "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover", brought him to fame in 2005...

, who spent time at the mill during his childhood.

External links

• Cley mill website
• Windmill World webpage on Cley Mill