Reclaimed by nature

Image: © Evelyn Simak Taken: 16 Jul 2008

The former carpenter's shop is slowly disintegrating. When the Aylsham Navigation was constructed, an island was created between the River Bure > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/885578 and the canal > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/885571. This area was called Pool Meadow. In the westernmost corner of Pool Meadow - just across from the millpool at Millgate mill > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/881948 - http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/885415 - http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/885420 there once used to be a carpenter's shop and several woodsheds as well as two hen houses. One hundred years ago this area was accessed through the ford below the millpool but this is no longer an option today. Presently this corner is very much overgrown with mainly nettles and ivy; access is difficult, and to find and identify any buildings within even more so. A derelict wooden shed surrounded by nettles might well have been the carpenter's shop: a large stone grinding wheel for sharpening tools is still leaning against one corner > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/885631. A short distance away there is a rather large brick-built kiln > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/885645 - http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/885649 which might have been used by the wheelwright/carpenter who repaired the mill's wheels and cogs. The cogs were fashioned from the wood of beech, apple or hornbeam. The completion of the Bure navigation canal (the so-called Aylsham Navigation) in 1773 brought further wealth to the prosperous town and led to the development around Millgate. William White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk 1845 reports that "The Bure, which washes the foot of the town, was formerly only navigable from Yarmouth to Coltishall, (11 miles below Aylsham bridge by the water, and 7 by land) but in 1773, an act was obtained for extending the navigation to Aylsham, for boats of 14 tons burthen, drawing two feet five inches water, which was completed after many difficulties and interruptions, in Oct., 1779, at a cost of upwards of £6000, including the cost of the basin and wharfs near the bridge, where much business is done in coal, corn, timber, &c." On 26th August 1912 the great flood destroyed all locks and the Aylsham Navigation was closed; in 1967 the mill was vacated and in 1974 the Aylsham Canal basin was filled in. See also > http://www.norfolkmills.co.uk/aylsham-navigation.html

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