Woodbridge Tide Mill in Woodbridge,

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

is a rare example of a tide mill whose water wheel still turns and is capable of grinding a wholemeal flour. The mill is a Grade I

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 I ...

. It is a three-storey building constructed from wood; externally it is clad in white Suffolk boarding and has a Gambrel roof. Its machinery reflects the skills and achievements of the early

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

. It has been preserved and is open to the public. The reservoir constructed for demonstration purposes is roughly half an acre in extent, the original one is now a marina.

History

The first recording of a tide mill on this site was a medieval mill in 1170; it is unknown how many mills have stood here, but probably three. The mill, which was operated by the local Augustinian priory in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, was acquired by Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536. It is possible that the Augustinians rebuilt the mill shortly before the dissolution. This mill and the former Woodbridge Priory was granted to Thomas Seckford by

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

. That mill passed through the hands of various private owners until it was rebuilt in the seventeenth century. This is the mill preserved today. By the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the mill was one of only a handful still operating. In 1957 it closed as the last commercially operating tide mill in Britain. In 1968 the derelict mill was purchased by Mrs Jean Gardner and a restoration programme was launched. It was opened to the public five years later in 1973. It is now managed by a charitable trust (Woodbridge Tide Mill Trust) staffed by volunteers, and in 2011 the trust undertook a further and more complete restoration and modernisation project, including a new water wheel and fully restored machinery, which allowed milling to begin again. It re-opened in 2012 and is now one of only two tide mills in the UK that regularly grinds wheat grain producing wholemeal flour for resale.

External links

Woodbridge Tide Mill

Types of Mills

Page at geograph
with several images of the mill * {{coord, 52.0901, N, 1.3209, E, type:landmark_region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(TM275487), display=title Watermills in Suffolk Museums in Suffolk Grade I listed buildings in Suffolk Grade I listed industrial buildings Mill museums in England Woodbridge, Suffolk Tide mills Grade I listed water mills

History

See also

External links