Hunsett Mill is located on the east bank of the

River Ant The River Ant is a tributary river of the River Bure in the county of Norfolk, England. It is long (of which 8.75 miles are now navigable), and has an overall drop of 27 metres from source to mouth. It is said that the Ant was formerly known as ...

one mile north of

Barton Broad Barton Broad is a nature reserve north-east of Norwich in Norfolk. It is owned and managed by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. It is part of the Ant Broads and Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest and National Nature Reserve, and part of it ...

in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

. The Windmill is 1.2 miles south west of the town of

Stalham Stalham is a market town and civil parish on the River Ant in the English county of Norfolk, in East Anglia. It covers an area of and had a population of 2,951 in 1,333 households at the 2001 census, the population increasing to 3,149 at the 20 ...

. The mill structure is a grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Description

The Windmill was built in 1860 and is constructed of red bricks. The mill has a White boat shaped cap sails and a fantail. The windpump once ran two scoop wheels. The tower had four patent sails. The mill is approximately 12 m high, and has been visually retained in its original historic condition, even though internal works to the mill in the 1960s have removed all mill equipment previously installed in the brick structure. The mill is part of the large historic pumping mill system characteristic to the Broads, and is Grade II listed. (

List of drainage windmills in Norfolk This is a list of drainage windmills in the current ceremonial county English county of Norfolk. Some of the windmills in this area receive maintenance from the Norfolk Windmills Trust. Locations A B C D - F G - H I - L M N - O ...

) The house adjacent to the mill has originally been built around the same time as the mill, but to less good standards than the mill itself. The house was built on a little raised earth mount to prevent flooding, and consisted of two spaces for the Millkeeper, a ground floor room and an upper floor room connected by a staircase. Due to its original limitations and due to repeated flooding, the Mill Keepers house has been remodelled and extended extensively, in the 1910s, 1940s, 1950s, 1970s and in 2008. Hunsett Mill is probably the most photographed windmill on the Broads appearing as it does on most postcards. This is due to its chocolate box picture setting. The Mill is quite hard to get to, being at the Northern end of the

Norfolk Broads Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North ...

network and it has no road access. Hunsett Mill is privately owned.

History

The site has probably been occupied by pumping structures for several centuries, but all existing structures on site date from 1860 or later. Embedded in the stonework of the Mill is a Datestone inscribed HUNSETT 1698 which is presumed to be originating from an earlier mill on the site. The historic mill and the mill keepers house were used for water pumping functions until approximately 1910. Since then the mill has not been used and the internals except for the cap were gutted in the 1950s/ 60s. The Hunsett Mill house has been used over the last decades as a stand-alone primary residence and holiday home. Major damage was caused to the sails of the windmill in the Great storm of 1987, which resulted in one of the sails being completely replaced with wood especially shipped all the way from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. On 5 May 2007 another storm caused the fan to be torn of the fanstage which was repaired in the summer of 2008. Between 2008 and 2009, Hunsett Mill was extensively renovated and the Mill Keepers Cottage remodelled based on a design by ACME (architecture), Adams Kara Taylor (structure), Hoare Lea (Services) and built by Willow Builders Limited (www.willowbuilders.co.uk) .Five extensions made to the Cottage in the 1940s and 1950s were demolished and replaced with a single extension at the back of the cottage. In order for the new extension to retreat behind the listed setting of the mill, the new additions to the house are designed as shadows of the existing house. The structure of the new extension is made entirely from solid laminated wood, which is exposed in the interior and clad in charred cedar boards externally. Ground source heat pumps, passive solar heating, independent water well supply and a new treatment plant will make the house almost fully self-sufficient. These works to Mill and Cottage coincided with Flood defence work by the Environment Agency and included the construction of a new earth berm flood defence around the Mill and the Cottage.

Awards

The Mill Keepers Cottage has won a number of awards, including the

RIBA The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...

Manser Medal 2010 for the best one-off house in the United Kingdom. The house has also been shortlisted for the "Structural Awards 2009" by the

Institution of Structural Engineers The Institution of Structural Engineers is a professional body for structural engineering based in the United Kingdom. The Institution has over 30,000 members operating in over 100 countries. The Institution provides professional accreditation ...

and the "Sustainability Awards 2009" as one of the five most sustainable projects with a budget under £2 million by the

UK Green Building Council The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) is a United Kingdom membership organisation, formed in 2007, which aims to 'radically transform' the way that the built environment in the UK is planned, designed, constructed, maintained and operated. The c ...

and Building Magazine. Hunsett Mill has been named as one of seven East of England winners in the

Awards for architectural excellence."Riba Awards 2010 Winners Announced"
. 20 May 2010.

References

External links

Hunsett Mill website

{{Windmills and Windpumps of East Anglia Windmills in Norfolk Windmills of the Norfolk Broads Tower mills in the United Kingdom Windmills completed in 1860 Stalham Grade II listed buildings in Norfolk Grade II listed windmills 1860 establishments in England