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History: people and
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People and Places
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Legends and
Folklore
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other former public buildings, please
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Oakley Park
Images of the South Front and
the Drawing Room are available from the 'Country
Life Picture Library. If you have your own images for
reporoduction here, do please get in touch! We did feature
the Country Life pictures here for a while but the pictures were
subject to a reproduction fee and we are unable to feature them
permanently for copyright
reasons.
Hoxne
Mill
The following extract
and photographs are reproduced from the
Norfolk
Mills website
and are used with the kind permission of
Jonathan Neville.
Hoxne watermill was built in 1846 to
replace the earlier building of 1749, which in turn replaced an
earlier building on the same site. Somewhere just prior to
rebuilding, the 1749 building had been converted from corn milling
to flax and linen manufacture. Eventually the mill was converted
back to corn milling and it may be that this change of use occurred
several times throughout its life.
 The building is of
three storeys, built of brick up to the first storey and then
timber framed and weatherboarded with a slate roof. Originally
there were 4 pairs of stones, although only two pairs remained
by 1968. The 15' 9" iron undershot wheel was 6' 8" wide and
was made by Knights of Harleston. Eventually the wheel was
supplemented by steam with a steam shed being attached to the
rear of the mill along with its distinctive tall chimney that
stood above the ridge of the mill.
In 1838 Henry Warne had a factory in Mere Street, Diss where he
employed 40 men, 3 women and 20 boys making drabbets, huckabacks,
sheeting and shirting. Some of the men worked for up to 16 hours a
day in their own homes for about 16s a week. Around 1840 Henry
Warne closed the Diss factory and moved to Hoxne Mill.
 In 1841 Henry Warne
was granted an 8 year lease by Sir Edward Kerrison of Oakley
Park, Suffolk. The lease describes Sir Edward as owner or
proprietor of a certain dwelling house Water Mill Steam Engine
Machinery and Buildings with appurtenances situated and being
in Hoxne. The mill is described as having an undershot
waterwheel, pit wheel, bevelled nut on an upright shaft with a
large crown wheel.
In the 1920s George Bridges who lived in the
cottage behind the mill was the miller under John Chase's
ownership. George would net many eels and these were frequently
sent to Billingsgate market in London. He would also hire out
rowing boats for John Chase who was living at the mill
house.
|
Lot 70 of Dame Mary Kerrison's Trust Estate put
up for auction on 14 July 1897. It was purchased by John Chase
Jnr. for £500: |
|
The Highly Valuable
Property |
situate in the Parish of Hoxne, Suffolk, and
Thorpe Abbots, Norfolk, and consisting of
A substantially Brick-Built and Slated Residence known as Waveney
House which contains Hall and 2 Reception Rooms, Kitchen and
Scullery, Dairy, Pantry, 5 Bedrooms, and Box Room, also Cottage
adjoining containing 4 rooms, Wood-barn, Coal House, and 2 W.C.'s,
together with |
|
THE THREE STOREY
MILL |
| and Premises with Water wheel and 2 Main
wheels, Boiler house, Engine room, Office, 2 Bay Cart-shed, 3 Bay
Open shed, Lean-to Open shed, Gig house, Calves' place, stabling
for 4 horses with Granary over, and 4 bay open shed, and Cow-house
&c., also |
|
FIVE ENCLOSURES OF VALUABLE
MEADOW LAND |
The Whole Comprising 12A. 0R. 17P. No. 650 is
let (with other property) to Mr. J.R. Neeve at an
entire rent of £389 2s. 0d., of which £2 15s.0d. is apportioned to
this Lot. The remainder is let to Mr. E.C. Pike at a rent of £15 0s
0d. |
 In 1929 Alfred
Dyball sold the mill, the mill house, cottage, farm buildings,
the farmhouse, a fine old barn and about 50 acres of land to
Leonard Walker R.I., artist, for £1500. Leonard Walker's son
Renton, ran the mill and farm. He would take in corn from
nearby farms for grinding and charged 6d per coomb.
Meanwhile, Leonard Walker converted the barn to a studio where he
held art classes.
The black and white photograph shows the mill in 1907, the second
picture shows the mill and house in May 1972 and the
third picture, courtesy of Margaret Richardson, shows the mill in
the summer of 2000.
If you are interested in the history of watermills, Jonathan
Neville's excellent and comprehensive
website gives details of windmills, watermills
and steam mills throughout Norfolk and its borders. At the time of
Domesday, in the 11th century, there were some 580 recorded
watermills in Norfolk, but no windmills. By the 19th century
only 80 or 90 watermills were still functioning but there were
still 300 - 400 windmills in the county.
In 1939 Claude Messent recorded that there were only 60 watermills
still standing and by 2004 the number had gone down to 52 with only
around 20 still containing any remnants of machinery. Many
have now disappeared completely.
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The Hoxne
Workhouse
The Hoxne Poor Law Union formally came into being on
24th June 1835. Its operation was overseen by an elected Board of
Guardians, 35 in number, representing its 24 constituent parishes
as listed below (figures in brackets indicate numbers of Guardians
if more than one):
County of Suffolk: Athelington, Badingham (2),
Bedfield, Bedingfield, Brundish, Denham, Dennington (2),
Fressingfield (3), Horham, Hoxne (2), Laxfield (2), Mendham,
Metfield (2), Monk Soham, Saxstead, Southolt, Stradbroke (3),
Syleham, Tannington, Weybred [Weybread] (2), Wilby (2), Wingfield,
Withersdale, Worlingworth (2).
The population falling within the Union at the
1831 census had been 15,166 with parishes ranging in size
from Athelington (population 129) to Stradbroke (1,527). The
average annual poor-rate expenditure for the period 1833-35 had
been £19,904 or £1.6s.3d. per head of the population.
A new Hoxne Union workhouse was built in 1835 at
Barley Green near Stradbroke and was based on the popular cruciform
plan. The Poor Law Commissioners authorised an expenditure of
£8,274 on construction of the building which was to accommodate 300
inmates.
The
workhouse was closed in 1871 and seems to have stood empty for many
years. It was used as a prisoner of war camp during the First World
War but the main building appears to have been demolished by the
early 1920s. The single-storey entrance ranges and the fever block
at the rear survive, having been converted to residential
use.
In 1907, the Hoxne Union
was merged with the neighbouring
Hartismere Union
to form a new Hartismere and Hoxne Union.
Back to the top
The Story of H.M.S
Captain
The “History and Guide to St Peter and St
Paul Hoxne” church includes the following -
“Recalling the loss of HMS Captain - Memorial
tablets commemorate the sad loss of H.M.S. Captain, the first naval
ship to combine wind and steam power, which capsized in a storm in
the Bay of Biscay on the night of September 6, 1870, with the loss
of all but 18 of her 600 crew. She was commanded by Captain
Burgoyne VC, son-in-law of Admiral Sir Baldwin Wake Walker, of the
Depperhaugh, Hoxne. Two flags from the ship, recovered from the sea
after the disaster, (given to the church by Evelyn Burgoyne,
Captain Burgoyne’s widow) hung for some years above the tablets,
but are now no longer exhibited because of their age and fragility.
A window by the pulpit is in memory of Captain Burgoyne and the son
of Admiral Wake Walker.
Further information is provided by Hugh Moffat in an article
originally published in “Mariners Mirror” - “The local newspaper
carried an obituary notice for Charles Walker, the Admiral’s
twenty-one-year-old second son, who was also lost on the ship.
There was no mention of him being in the navy and the news report
said that he `had gone on a cruise with his relative’ “.
The flags were taken down some years ago due to their poor state.
They are rolled round their staffs, each blackened roll being about
12 feet long, which may approximate to the length of the diagonal
of the flags. One appears to have a diagonal stripe extending to
the corner of the fly. They are believed to be signal flags, washed
out of the locker as the ship turned over.
There was a move a few years ago to
have them seriously conserved, and the National Trust central
fabric centre at Blickling Hall in Norfolk were approached. Also
the National Maritime Museum were involved and at that time
expressed great interest in the flags - their conservation and
their custody.
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