Hagon Beck is a minor

watercourse A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long large streams are ...

which rises in the north of 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 of

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 ...

. It falls into Great Lake in Gunton Park, which in turn feeds Suffield Beck. Suffield Beck is a tributary of Blackwater Beck which in turn joins the

River Bure The River Bure is a river in the county of Norfolk, England, most of it in the Broads.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS Explorer Map OL40 - The Broads''. . The Bure rises near Melton Constable, upstream of Aylsham, which was the original head of ...

. Its

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...

is a little north of the

North Norfolk North Norfolk is a local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in Cromer. The population at the 2011 Census was 101,149. History The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972. It was a ...

village of

Roughton Roughton, as a person, may refer to: *Roughton "Rou" Reynolds, English musician in the post hardcore band Enter Shikari *Julian Roughton, the current Chief Executive of Suffolk Wildlife Trust Roughton, as a place, may refer to: *Roughton, Linco ...

. There were two

watermills A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...

on the beck. The first was located at Gunton, and the second is a sawmill in Suffield Park.

Gunton Watermill

The

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1068 records a watermill on Hagon Beck at Gunton that continued working right through the medieval period. The estate on which the mill stood was sold in 1676, and by then the mill had ceased to work, although a map that was provided in the sale particulars showed that the millpond still remained. The millpond was still shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1838, although, by the time this map was published, Hagon Beck had been dammed to form the lake known as Great Water to the north of the mill. It is likely that it was the damming of the beck that caused the demise of Gunton Watermill. Great Water was created to feed Gunton Park Sawmill.

Gunton Park Sawmill

Gunton Park Sawmill was built as a sawmill in 1824 to provide sawn timber for the

Gunton Hall Gunton Hall, Gunton Park, is a large country house near Suffield in Norfolk. History The estate belonged to the Gunton family in the 12th century, to the Berney family in the 16th century and later to the Jermyn family. The current house was bu ...

Estate. It is the only surviving water powered sawmill in Norfolk. It was constructed as a simple timber-framed building open on three sides. It has a hipped thatched roof of the local

Norfolk reed ''Phragmites australis'', known as the common reed, is a species of plant. It is a broadly distributed wetland grass that can grow up to tall. Description ''Phragmites australis'' commonly forms extensive stands (known as reed beds), which may ...

. Hagon Beck fed the lake, and the mill was set below the water level which provided the power to drive two identical ,

breastshot A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or bucket ...

wheels via a guillotine gate. One wheel powered the main flywheel-driven reciprocating saw, and the other was set to drive a circular saw and ancillary equipment, including a small corn mill that was also included at the mill site. The outflow from the sawmill then became Hagon Beck once more, eventually rejoining the original watercourse. It is maintained by the

Norfolk Windmills Trust The Norfolk Windmills Trust is a charity based in Norfolk, England, which restores and cares for windmills in that county. Mills in its care (but not necessarily owned) include those at: * Ashtree Farm Mill * Berney Arms (English Heritage - pictur ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hagon Beck Rivers of Norfolk History of Norfolk