IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Bourne Road, COLCHESTER, CO2 8RT

The concrete leat onto the waterwheel housed hidden to visitors under the building.

I managed to sneak this shot from the alleyway that leads through from Bourne Road to Stalin Road. Taken in the evening - in rather tricky light - at a time when the National Trust property was closed. An inscription on the south-facing gable dates the building to 1591. From the flamboyant style of the gables it is clear that it wasn't meant to be anything as mundane as a water-mill (the conversion came centuries later). Pevsner and others suggest that the building was originally a fishing lodge - presumably on the sporting estate of some well-to-do gentleman.

The photo was taken on a brief evening visit, from public space (in Bourne Road) rather than from within the National Trust grounds. I chose the angle in the hope of showing the building's most distinctive features: the elaborate gables, with their array of pinnacles. Not a great deal seems to be known about the building's origins, but a tablet set in the south gable is inscribed 'Thomas Lucas, miles, me fecit Anne Domini 1591'. So it seems its builder was a soldier. I've seen it suggested that Lucas was of Dutch or Flemish origin - which could well explain the fantastical gables. Whatever his origins, Lucas's design strikes me as very un-English - unlike almost anything in England other than Image The mill stands on a bank which dams a stream known as the Bourne. At one stage in its history the pond served as a fish-pond for the local abbey, but it isn't clear whether the pond was constructed for that purpose or to serve an earlier mill. In any case, the consensus is that Lucas's building was intended as a fishing lodge, not for any industrial purpose: http://www.colchesterhistoricbuildingsforum.org.uk/drupal/node/251

This richly ornamented wall is influenced by Dutch designs of the 16th century

I was reminded of nothing so much as Image Date must have something to do with it - Tresham's Lodge is said to date from (about) 1594, Bourne Mill from 1591. The curiously shaped gable of the Mill looks very Dutch (hardly surprising, so close to the North Sea coast) and it has been suggested that it was built by Flemish settlers. The masonry of the gable has been 'galleted' - the mortar courses have been decorated with chips of flint - and in this evening view the little flint chips gleam in the low sun. There seems to be some agreement that the Mill was originally built as a fishing lodge - so perhaps the pond (made by damming the little River Bourne) was a fish-pond before it was made use of as a source of power.

The National Trust property is open for a few hours each week during the summer.

The Lucum was added to allow grain to be lifted (via a sackhoist) into the grain floor for eventual grinding.