The gradient in the rivers is small, precluding the use of anything other than a low or mid breastshot wheel. The exception to this is on the small tributary streams which allowed for 10 feet or more of fall and on these overshot wheels were used in preference.

There is virtually no local building stone available, so for most of the period of watermilling timber frame held sway, with brick being a relative latecomer. An early mill survives at Campsey Ash, a religious site where the mill and adjacent house are believed to date from the late 15th or early 16th century. Limbourne mill, Homersfield, dated 1783, is an example of a 18th century rebuilding to gain additional storage space. The typical Suffolk mill had a simple gabled roof. There were also several mansard roofs and at Ufford the lower part of the roof is so steep that one wonders why it was not made vertical and boarded!

Several of the rivers were made navigable in the 18th century and those mills served by barges could command extra trade, leading to large mills being constructed. Two giant mills were constructed in the early 19th century. Nayland mill was five storeys high, had two wheels and a steam engine since 1820. It was pulled down in the 1920's but the base survives. A second mill stood on the opposite side of the road and a high level bridge connected the two. Wiston mill, also at Nayland, was already a large mill, with no less than four wheels, but had a huge six storey steam mill added to the front and the number of wheels reduced to two. Altogether 13 pairs of stones were driven but the business went bust and by 1890 the steam mill had been demolished. Another four-wheel mill stood at the opposite end of the county at Mildenhall. In 1887 part of the mill was rebuilt in brick as a turbine driven roller mill, a second turbine being used to generate electricity. It was further rebuilt in 1908. A third turbine was driving it by this time and the last of the four water wheels was taken out in 1902.

Sproughton mill was rebuilt in brick in 1817 to designs by William Cubitt (the windmill sail man); despite its pleasing architectural style Cubitt did not make a very good job of the foundations and the building almost collapsed recently, being rescued in the nick of time by the local authority. The mill at Bungay on the river Waveney can be summed up by one word; "ugly". It owes its appearance to an irregular site and its rebuilding after a fire in 1902. The corrugated iron clad lucam projects right across the road and over the tailrace from where wherries could be loaded or unloaded. Mills of this period need not be ugly however. When Layham mill on the river Brett, a large timber structure of five storeys, burned down in 1905, it was replaced on a much smaller scale in brick, retaining the earlier mill's wheel and gearing.

Woodbridge mill was built in 1793 and relied totally on impounded tidal water. It has two floors devoted to storage plus a huge granary adjoining. Another large tide mill stood at Ipswich. It was a double mill with two wheels and eight pairs of stones and was let to two separate millers for some of the time, which must have made for interesting trading arrangements!

While the majority of the mills were of conventional design, there were exceptions. Euston mill was also used to pump water into a tank in the mock church tower above. It was in existence by 1675 and was rebuilt in the late 18th century. The water was used for domestic purposes and to
supply fountains at nearby Euston Hall. Only two farm mills are known to me.

Upright shaft and spur wheel drive is typical, often with wooden gearing; compass arm wheels are common. Some mills modernised in the late 19th century with iron machinery and wheels but much of this later machinery has fallen victim to scrap merchants and surviving examples are now more rare than the older wooden gearing. Lineshaft drive was used in some mills and others used large hurst frames with up to four pairs of stones on the ground floor.

Internal waterwheels are the norm. Watercourses are usually very simple; sometimes the by-pass sluice is beside the mill, as at Thorington street. The mill pond is formed by an earth dam running along the shallow valley, the mill and sluices being positioned at the end once sufficient fall has been reached. More often the by-pass channel curves around the mill, the gates being some distance upstream as at Wickham
Market Most Suffolk watermills had some form of additional power source, either by fixed or portable steam engines, and more recently internal combustion engines or electric motors. In earlier times however it was common to have a nearby windmill as an auxiliary; Wenhaston mill is the only one known to have had a windmill on the roof itself. Unfortunately its type is not known and nothing remains in the mill to show where it might have been placed.

It is worth remarking that almost 500 windmills once stood in Suffolk yet only 20 remain intact whereas of the total of about 100 watermills in the early 19th century 53 survive, 29 of which retain machinery. On the other hand, the water table is so low now that there is hardly any mill that could operate commercially by water power, even if it wanted to. Only one mill remains in regular work, that at Pakenham, and this is run by volunteer millers part-time.

(Transcript of a talk given at the SPAB Watermill Meeting, November 21st. 1998.  © Peter Dolman)

Historical Overview

Suffolk watermills were much scarcer than the windmills due to a lack of suitable rivers, only about 100 standing during the 19th. century, but because they were larger than many of the windmills a higher proportion has survived. Over 50 watermills remain, of which about a third are complete with their machinery.

The use of water power in this country goes back to Roman times but firm evidence is lacking as to when they came into common use locally. It is possible that from the mid 7th century at least watermills were being erected and by the time of the "Domesday" survey 178 mills (believed to have all been watermills) are recorded. This number is probably overstated slightly due to a set of millstones being counted as one mill, so a building with two or more sets might be counted as 2 or more mills. At this date all the mills would have been for corn milling.

 With the rise of the cloth industry in the centuries following the conquest water powered fulling mills were built, sometimes on the site of corn mills and sometimes next to them. By the 16th century the number of watermills in Suffolk had probably reached its peak; my guess
at the total would be in the order of 200. Many sites were on little more than ditches, with water having to be impounded for a considerable period before being able to work. The more marginal sites were abandoned until the early 19th century when numbers stabilised. With the loss of the cloth industry fulling mills disappeared but in the early 19th. century Suffolk could boast water powered "mills" for silk throwsting, papermaking, oil manufacture, flax spinning and possibly scutching, water pumping, cement grinding and one for "oil leather dressing, glue boiling and fellmongering" as well as more commonplace corn milling.

Due to the relatively low fall available on most Suffolk rivers most mills used undershot or low-breastshot wheels. Some overshot and high-breastshot wheels were to be found, usually on smaller tributaries but even at these a head of 10 feet was the usual limit. In the late 19th. century some larger mills replaced their wheels with more efficient water turbines. There are no records of "horizontal" wheels in Suffolk
such as those found in other parts of the British Isles but it is quite possible that the earliest mills could have used this kind of wheel, which required no gearing and so was easier to make.

Tide mills were found on the larger estuaries; one at Ipswich and the well known Woodbridge mill were true tide mills, relying totally on impounded salt water and there were others at Ipswich, Stutton and Brantham which used impounded salt water as well as having freshwater streams or rivers running into them.

(Taken from An Historical Atlas of Suffolk (1999) published by Suffolk County Council and Suffolk Institute of Archaeology & History;  © Peter Dolman)