Corpusty - footpath past the mill

Image: © Evelyn Simak Taken: 17 Apr 2009

A narrow path leads from here to the village green > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1257429. The watermill is mentioned in the Domesday Book, recording that there was a mill at the present site already at the time of the Norman invasion. The adjoining mill house dates from the 16th century. The mill is located on the River Bure, where presumably in the 1870s a new cut had been dug to straighten the meanders in the river which impeded the water flow. The great flood in August 1912 undermined the railway tracks a couple of miles upstream from the mill and at one point the water reached the mantelpiece of one of the hearths in the mill house. The old single arch bridge in the village was also destroyed. Prior to 1912, the road crossing by the mill was a ford but by 1914 the road had been built up and moved further away from the mill, with the bridge finally opening in 1914. By 1999, the bridge was deemed unsafe for heavy goods vehicles which were diverted through Aylsham until completion of the bypass in early 2002. The bridge has since been renovated. The mill closed in 1965 - it is in good repair and now a listed building. http://www.norfolkmills.co.uk/Watermills/corpusty.html The villages Corpusty and Saxthorpe, situated either side of the river Bure, merge into each other. Each village has their own church but St Andrew's > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/309082 serves both villages ever since Corpusty's Saint Peter's > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/873327 - located on the outskirts of the village and separated from it by the busy B1149 - closed and came in the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches.

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