NHER 10495 (Building record) - Pettingill's Mill, Haddiscoe Island

Drainage pump.

July 1979.
Squat brick tower remains, now roofed with corrugated iron. Scoop wheel still in its wooden shelter. Modern brick pumphouse beside.
See (S1).
This is one of the only two mills in the county to have a wooden commonpole, the other being NHER 10403; the original machinery survives inside. The mill was used again in the 1950 floods to drain the area.
Information from member of the public [1].
Marked on (S2).
E. Rose (NAU), 26 July 1979.

One pair of sails converted from cloth sails to patent sails by William T. England whose workman Arthur Thrower took two weeks to drill out the windshaft with a spoon-bit auger (S3).
E. Rose (NLA), 29 November 2005.

February 1988. Listed, Grade II.
Listing Description:
Disused drainage windpump. 19th century. Battered tarred brick tower. Circular on plan, three storeys. First floor openings with wooden shutters. Ground floor doorway, square headed, on west side. Cap and sails removed - 20th century roof of corrugated iron sheeting. Large diameter external scoopwheel of iron and timber construction on north side of tower. Interior not inspected.
Information from (S4).
D. Robertson (NLA), 31 January 2006.

The mill site is not marked on Faden's map (S5) but is recorded on all subsequent maps. The mill ended its working life largely unmodernised and still manually turned into the wind by its tailpole. It last worked by wind with one pair of common sails and one pair of patent sails taken from Caldecott Mill (NHER 10493) across the river. A tractor was used as auxiliary power for the scoopwheel during WWII and was in use during the 1953 floods. According to (S6) the tractor's function was replaced by an electric pump in 1956. An examination of the interior of the mill (S7) revealed the remains of an unusual device for centring the cap, traces of which have been found on two older mill sites on the River Bure but otherwise found in north west England, Anglesey and on the continent.
A. Yardy (HES), 11 August 2011.