Redgrave Mills
by Jean Sheehan

In medieval times all tenants of the manor were only allowed to have their corn ground at the lord's mill, for which they had to pay a fee and they were fined at the manor court if they were discovered grinding their own corn.

The water mill was leased to Robert Lyng in the account year of1555/6 but four years later it was standing empty and the rent of £4 p.a. was unpaid to the lord of the manor, Sir Nicholas Bacon. John Branton of Soame, Cambridgehire became tenant in 1563/4 with a lease of 20 years at £4 per annum plus repairs and included the four acres of meadow. The rent increased to£7 per annum at the end of this term, but remained at the same rent until 1619/20 when it was raised to £8. The rents were due on Lady Day, March 25th, and Michaelmas, September 29th. John Knight senior held by lease the watermill with four acres of land in 1606, as well as renting the windmill with four and a half acres of land. One of the documents in the University of Chicago is a lease to Thomas Howlett of CrackthorneWatermill dated 1609. The watermill had disappeared from the accounts by 1645 although the meadow was still being rented out. A resident of Redgrave told me that as a boy he and some friends had managed to push a mill stone into the water near this spot, probably in the 1950s. I would love to know if it was part of the medieval water mill and if it is still in the water.

The accounts for the manor of Redgrave of 1344/5 show that the manor had 6 mills being repaired, one being situated in Wortham. Golpet windmill was situated in the lane we still know as Mill Lane in Redgrave. Feldmylne was situated in Botesdale, but it is not clear if the others were situated in Redgrave or Botesdale. They were known as Le Corncrough, Okmelne and Brommylne. The latter may have been near Broomhills. Three carpenters working on the mills were being paid eightpence a day between them, at one time having to fell an ash tree in the wood to make the framework for the sails. Some of the metal being used for ironwork in the mill was being re-forged from old iron although most of it was bought from new. The cost of 260 nails was ninepence halfpenny.

Hodkinson's map of Suffolk, 1783, shows a windmill which probably would have been situated in the present garden of the new house, Mill Meadow, near to the cross roads. There was a miller here during the nineteenth century, but he had become a threshing machine owner by the beginning of the 20th century.

A tower mill was built off Sandy Lane in 1816 on land previously used as arable land. This mill was bought by John Pettit in 1923. At this time corn was being delivered by a miller's cart with two horses. In June, the following year, John Pettit was married and, two days after he returned from his honeymoon, the mill was burnt down. The fire was discovered by the foreman of the mill in the engine house, where a gas engine had been running. It spread rapidly to the granary next door, and then on to the mill, gutting the building within an hour. The oil store which was situated a short distance away, also burnt down. The fire was discovered at 4 p.m. and the Hopton Fire Brigade arrived at 7.30 p.m. with their manual pump. The fire engine was horse-drawn and the hosepipe was full of holes. Water was taken from the pond at Street Farm, about four hundred yards from the fire, and a human chain was formed by the willing helpers from the village, to the tank from which the engine pumped the water. The fire engine at Diss had been telephoned for, but that could only be sent if horses could be found for it. The estimated cost of the damage was £1,500. (The mill was insured for £300 in 1818). The windmill was never rebuilt, but the business carried on with an oil-fired mill. The mill was finally closed in 1965.

Sadly no mills remain in Redgrave, it must have been wonderful to see Pettits Mill from the village, silhouetted against the setting sun.