Qualla: East Dereham Windmill

East Dereham Windmill: Introduction

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The mill was built in 1836 and it has been in trouble for most of its life. Its first owner tried to let it almost immediately. The man who bought it at auction in 1844 paid £650 and then passed it through three generations of his family until the business wound up in 1937. The sails came off. A paraffin engine replaced the steam engine. The mill stood empty, then became a meeting room for the Girl Guides, then suffered vandalism, then got a lottery bid turned down. And yet here it still is — restored, turning, open to visitors — on Norwich Road in East Dereham, Norfolk, a Grade II listed tower mill that keeps surviving everything the modern world throws at it.

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East Dereham Windmill: James Hardy's Machine

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Norwich Road Mill was built in 1836 by millwright James Hardy of Toftwood, commissioned by Michael Hardy, who already had a smock mill at Bittering and wanted a second operation. James Hardy knew his trade: the result was a five-storey tower mill with a boat-shaped cap turned by ...

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East Dereham Windmill: The Fendick Generations

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Fendick family ran the mill for sixty years across three generations. William Fendick died in 1863, and his widow Sarah kept the business going until 1871, when their son William took over. He added a steam engine for days when the wind failed, ran the mill until his own deat...

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East Dereham Windmill: The Long Road Back

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The mill spent decades in various states of neglect and partial use. In 1983 the Girl Guides and Toc H were given permission to use it as a meeting room on summer weeks — a practical arrangement that at least kept people coming and going. Vandalism in 1984 prompted Breckland Dist...

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