24 year labour of love restores historic mill for visitors
One man’s passion for windmills has resulted in a 130 year old derelict drainage mill in the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads being restored to working order for the first time in 60 years, providing a new riverside visitor experience.
The restoration of the grade 11 listed mill is the fruition of a 24 year labour of love for 73 year old Norfolk born Peter Grix. His vision, perseverance, and injection of personal savings has resulted in
an innovative interpretation project costing over £500,000. It includes the mill, a visitor centre housing an exhibition of windmill lore and history and 60m of 24 hour floating moorings with two electric charging points.
On Friday 17 April the cap, crafted by volunteers and Broads Authority millwright trainees, was craned triumphantly onto the top of Hardley Mill, on the River Yare near the village of Hardley. The stocks and sails will be added later, when the mill will become the only working drainage mill in South Norfolk.
Norwich born Peter Grix, who went to Langley School, fell in love with the mill while boating on the river as a boy. It had been destroyed in 1950, damaged by vandals and was home to thousands of birds.
In 1985, after moving to London to work as an architect, he determined to restore it. It took him seven years to obtain a 99 year lease from Norfolk County Council, which in turn leases the mill from the Waveney, Lower Yare and Lothingland Internal Drainage Board, for which Peter pays a peppercorn rent.
With a group of committed friends from the Aylsham area he began restoring the mill, ploughing in over £100,000 of his own capital and sleeping in the mill during the week. Over the years they built new floors and stairs, put in new windows and a new driving mechanism.
In 1996 the top of the mill was craned onto a base and a Nissan hut built around it to act as a workshop.
In 2005 Peter formed the Friends of Hardley Windmill (FoHW) and was granted £326,000 from LEADER+ Broads and Rivers Fund, £20,000 from WREN (Waste Recycling Environmental) and over £5,000 from the South Norfolk Council, the Fitzmaurice Trust and the Chet Valley Development Partnership. The FoHW also raised over £5,600.
Since then Peter and a hardcore of four retired friends have been working on the mill four and five days a week for two years. Rudolf Gunther, 83 from Cringleford, Michael Stephenson, 71, from Marsham near Aylsham, Wally Gould, 70, from Bawburgh and David Battell, 57, from Hardley village, have been using their engineering, carpentry, and problem solving skills to bring the project to life. Bill Carson from Thurton has been looking after the administration and finances.
Broads Authority trainee millwrights have helped build the heavy cap, and have crafted the ten blades for the 12 diameter fantail which turns the cap and sails into the wind.
Essex millwright Vincent Pargeter, who had climbed the mill and taken photos of it as a boy while on Broads holidays was able to advise the team how it used to look. He also made the 50ft stocks, frames and the canvas covered shutters and generally provided invaluable advice and assistance.
“You’ve got to be mad to do this sort of thing,” said Peter, who leaves his wife in London while he restores the mill during the week. “I’ve just got a passion for mills and am fascinated by their mechanisms. They are an extraordinary piece of machinery. It’s terrible to see so many falling down in the Broads.”
The prefabricated eco-friendly visitor centre is built on 14m deep piles which cost £20,000 – more than the building itself. It has an attractive sedum turf roof and a 300 gallon tank to catch rainwater for flushing toilets. The centre will house an exhibition of the evolution of Broads mills, artefacts from the original mill, and diagrams and a working model to explain how the mill works.
Said Peter: “The project is bigger than we ever envisaged. We’re now hoping for charitable status. My main concern is for the future of the mill, to try to ensure that it will be maintained as a working example for the next 100 years. But we badly need more volunteers to form a rota to man the visitor centre and mill. I would like it to be a community project and for local people to take ownership of it and enjoy it.
“What has knocked me out is the guys who have helped me. They are mainly oaps and I never expected them to be driving miles, four days a week for two years, as reliable as clockwork, bringing enormous skills to unique problems. It’s been great fun and hard work. That’s what makes me proud.”
The mill and visitor centre which are set on the Wherryman’s Way, the long distance, footpath between Norwich and Gt. Yarmouth, will be open for 104 days between March and October. The mill can be approached from Hardley Staithe, from the Wherryman’s Way, or by boat from the River Yare.
It will be officially opened on Saturday 9 May and on Sunday 10 May at 10 am a four mile sponsored walk will go from Hardley village hall to Hardley Staithe, along the Wherryman’s Way for tea and cakes at the mill and visitor centre.
For more information on Hardley Windmill, take a look at the website www.hardley-windmill.org.uk or contact Richard Rockley, the FoHW secretary, on 01508 539221.
20/04/2009
