Corpusty watermill was also sometimes known as Saxthorpe Mill - possibly depending on which side of the river you lived. However, the mill house is in Corpusty and so is the majority of the mill. Grain was taken in on the Saxthorpe side and flour or feed was delivered out on the Corpusty side. The river is the parish boundary, with Saxthorpe to the east and Corpusty to the west.

A mill has been on the site since the time of Domesday, when in fact two mills were recorded - Then 1 mill, later and now 2. By the 13th century the two mills were known as Gate Mill and Lound Mill. Gate Mill seems to have been owned by the Lord of the Manor, Hugh Tyrel who leased it to Simon de Creping and his heirs - "he rendering yearly three quarters of barley which came to the Mill."

When the mill house was built adjoining the mill in the 16th century, the roof line was the same for both structures and both were built of brick with a pantile roof. One of the old mill arches bears the date 1699.
A second storey was added to the mill in 1880 and clad in weatherboard. Unusually for a Norfolk mill, the new mill roof was of slate, which was probably brought in from Wales via the new railway station at Corpusty. The now lower mill house retained its more traditional pantile roof. A new section was also added to the end of the mill house and this allowed the mill to utilise what was previously part of the house. A steam engine was also in use by this time, housed in a shed behind the mill house and a large chimney was built that stood considerably taller than the mill.

Royal Exchange Fire Insurance policy 85854

Compact Watermill...two watermills (error for two windmills corrected 18th August 1860)
CLOWES & FLOWERDEW are favoured with instructions to Sell by Auction at the Norfolk Hotel, Norwich on Saturday 25th August 1860 at 3 for 4 o'c.

Lot 1. That excellant Watermill, Residence, Stable, Warehouse, Meadow Land, & Post Windmill all in Corpusty doing a capital home trade.

Lot 2. The White Post Windmill, Warehouse & Arable Land near Lot 1. etc...

8 lots with the exception of about half an acre in Corpusty.)
The above is all Freehold & occupied by Mr. Goldsmith who will give possession at Michaelmas.
Particulars of J.H. Tillett Esq. or at the Auctioneers' offices, Bank Chambers, Norwich
Norfolk Chronicle - 11th, 18th & 25th August 1860 (also in Norfolk News)

The photograph above shows that the left hand door in the mill is now no longer part of the house, which it was in the photograph at the top of the page.

Robert Faircloth was shown as a journeyman miller at the mill in 1841 and by time of the 1851 census, his son Robert had married and moved to work at Castle_Rising_watermill. Eddie Faircloth (his brother?) ran the bake office.
Jack 'Sprat' Bush was also recorded as working at the mill.

The 1851 census lists the miller as being Henry A. Massingham (38), who was a master miller employing 2 men and two boys. One of those boys was his nephew Samuel Goldsmith, who at the age of 16 in the 1851 census was already described as a miller.

The Goldsmith family also owned two postmills in Corpusty known as the Black Mill and the White Mill

Compact Watermill...two watermills (error for two windmills corrected 18th August)
CLOWES & FLOWERDEW are favoured with instructions to Sell by Auction at the Norfolk Hotel, Norwich on Saturday 25th August 1860 at 3 for 4 o'c.

Lot 1. That excellant Watermill, Residence, Stable, Warehouse, Meadow Land, & Post_Windmill all in Corpusty doing a capital home trade.

Lot 2. The White Post Windmill, Warehouse & Arable Land near Lot 1. etc...

8 lots with the exception of about half an acre in Corpusty.
The above is all Freehold & occupied by Mr. Goldsmith who will give possession at Michaelmas.
Particulars of J. H. Tillett Esq. or at the Auctioneers' offices, Bank Chambers, Norwich
Norfolk Chronicle & Norfolk News - 11th, 18th & 25th August 1860

In common with most village folk he had his nicknames: 'Blue-choke' and 'Flacky'.
born on 24th April 1880 and fourth son of Richard & Charlotte Hill. Until his marriage he lived in the centre house of as terrace of three adjoining the Primitive Methodist Chapel in Norwich Road. His father was at various times a coal merchant and smallholder. He had two sisters and six brothers that was by no means the largest of the village families.
After marriage in 1902 to Henrietta Platten he moved into her parents' house at Mill Hill, Corpusty, a semi-detached cottage with two bedrooms built in 1837. In that cottage he fathered fifteen children, ten daughters and five sons. Following the death of his parents he and his family moved - at Michaelmas 1934 - to their house in Norwich Road. His working life centred on two activities. Firstly, a full-time job at the Corpusty watermill, primarily as a delivery man, by horse and cart, of flour and animal feedstuffs to farmers and villages within a radius of about five miles and secondly he worked part-time early mornings and evenings in the village bakery. The bakery was owned and run by Eddie, i.e. E.O. Faircloth.
He died on the 5th of May 1954 and is buried in Corpusty churchyard.
I've mentioned my father's nicknames but within the family he was Dadda and in a way this perhaps gives an idea of the affection we felt for him. From what I've been told he left school art the age of ten to become a bird scarer on local farms and most probably on the few acres his father owned or leased. He did attend night school in Saxthorpe Reading Room for several years. Hence his mental arithmetic prowess? There is no clue as to what he earned at this most tedious task but long hours and hard work with little reward was his lot for the rest of his working life. He had no choice after 1902 as he had more and more mouths to fill. His primary job in adult life was at Corpusty Mill as the deliveryman or carter. With horse and cart he delivered flour and feed stuffs to houses and farms within five or six mile radius of the mill. I was able to occasionally visit the mill to explore and to watch the various processes involved with producing flour and all sorts of animal feed. The machinery, with it's big greasy cogs converting water energy into grinding wheels, was always of great interest to my inquisitive mind. In particular I remember a maize product that resembles corn flakes; it was Kositos and was quite tasty as I ate handfuls collected from the chutes filling the sacks. The dirt and dust didn't seem to cause me harm but in retrospect there could have been mice droppings mixed in with the Kositos. Dad with his horse and cart sometimes came past Melton school which I attended after 1931 and a lift home was much better than walking the five or so miles. His horse was either stabled at the mill or put out to graze in a riverside meadow. He would give me - or Roger or Alan - a treat by letting us ride the horse into the river for a drink before returning it to the stable. The same horse and cart filled another essential need, taking us to Lion's Pithole to collect wood, which was brought home and used for the fire. Dad's day was far from being a nine to five job at the mill, as he also worked in the village bake house run by Eddie Faircloth. This extra job meant very early starts to the day, for six days a week, working for a couple of hours or so before heading for the mill. Some evenings he would be back in the bake house mixing and kneading dough in a long and deep wooden trough over which the two would work and sweat. No machinery to ease the aching backs. Sometimes I would grease the tins in readiness for the dough and subsequent baking. This hygienic process involved wearing a mitten made of sacking, dipping it into a tin of grease and thence to the insides off the bread tins. Eventually I was able to grease the inside of the tin in one continuous movement as I rotated the tin by the other hand. Cakes were also made and this is possibly where I gained and never lost an appreciation of home made cakes. At Easter the hot cross buns were turned out in their hundreds and one holiday task was to mix in the currants and brush on the egg yolk. My other jobs included delivering bread, on foot, to houses in the village with the aid of a big wicker basket or with Eddie in his van to neighbouring villages. There were occasional dividends, for example, when calling on Tich Wright on Needle Hill I could almost guarantee to get one of his wife's cakes. It was essential to learn of the individual customer requirements. Jimmy Carr, or "Club-foot" as he was know because of his disability, was always insistent that his bread was burnt on the outside as he lived in Folgate Lane it could be a long walk if the loaves were not to his liking. I soon learnt how many extra minutes to leave his bread in the oven.
One thing puzzled and disappointed me; Eddie would never let me use the peels to remove the bread. The peels of different lengths were stacked near the oven doors. Today's food officials would never have given Eddie a clean bill of health as the work of mixing and kneading was in a dusty atmosphere with puffs of smoke if the fires were not drawing properly. That was not all; turning on the lights could be the sign for cockroaches to flee to their hideouts. Customers must have been satisfied as many brought their cakes and roasts to be cooked in the ovens and especially at weekends for their Sunday dinners. The bake house door was a typical stable door in two sections either one could be opened. The lower section was ideal for resting on and to watch the life of Corpusty Street and to recall Eddie doing just that and passing the time of day with everyone passing by is my lasting memory of him. He must have spent a fair part of his time doing just that - and why not? Isn't that a pleasant part of village life? When not at the mill or bake house Dad could be found in the garden or sheds. It was never ending. A large garden, mending and tarring sheds, cleaning and mending shoes, collecting firewood, emptying the earth closet were just part of the daily chores. I can but wonder how he found time to play in the village band, be a member and treasurer of the local Loyal Walpole Lodge, helping with his father's small holding and, of course, raising 15 children. The saying of "if you want something done ask a busy man" was as true then as it is now. However, none of us starved, none became unemployed in later life and all of us achieved respected and creditable status. We were fortunate to have such parents.
The garden was big, almost an acre, both at Mill Hill and at Norwich Road after we moved there in 1934. Nearly every square yard was cultivated by hand and used to keep us self-sufficient with fruit and vegetables. We spent time, backs bent, weeding, hoeing or picking endless rows of peas, beans, onions, celery and potatoes. Fertilisation was based on two methods; growing green crops such as clover for digging in or by the unsavoury emptying of the earth closets; this latter task thankfully left to Dad for which I imagine all five boys remained grateful. Father kept the odd pig as a source of meat although tragedy struck with swine fever. This entailed forcing medicine down the throat via a cows horn but if that failed, the pig was killed and buried in the garden in a lime filled grave.
Dad didn't often dress up but if he did to attend a function or to visit he always worn a brown suit, which, I believe he was married in and wore to the day he died. The suit was made complete by highly polished boots and a peaked cap. " Club Nights" were such occasions for this when he would collect payments in pence for the Walpole Lodge of the Manchester Oddfellows. I may have the name slightly wrong but for the purpose was to create funds to help members who might fall on hard times. Dad was the Treasurer and he maintained the books meticulously as I found after his death. Probably Dad's main relaxation was playing his tuba in the Corpusty and Saxthorpe brass band irreverently known as "the gut". The tuba or E flat base to give it the proper name gave some of us a regular chore; cleaning and polishing it for the next band meeting; for some unknown reason Ena and I seemed to be chief cleaners. Dad joined the band at an early age as he is on a photograph of the band taken in about 1902 and he continued playing until the war caused its disbandment in 1940. I saw him play and practice many times but two events stand out. In 1935 the band travelled to Long Sutton to play at their King George V Silver Jubilee fete. Secondly, just before the outbreak of World war 2, the band led the Royal British Legion parade at the county Rally in Kings Lynn where General Playfair was the reviewing officer. Dad was in the front row of the band and at the head of the parade, what a pity we had no camera to record the special day but my memory is one of pride.
A Story of a Corpusty Lad - Ron Hill, 2006

My connection with the Faircloth family goes back to my Grandmother (Alice Elizabeth Faircloth) who married Sidney Robert Hill who was a baker at Weybourne. I feel fairly certain that Alice is the young lady sitting in the front row with a white dress (2nd from right). It would seem very likely that it is her father and mother, my Great Grandfather (Fred) and Great Grandmother who are the two centrally seated figures. My late Mother wrote on the reverse of photograph stating that it was 'Grandad and Grandma Faircloth' and she also mentioned that the baby was 'Carrie'. 
I can recall my late father (John Hill, the youngest of seven children born to Alice and Sidney) making mention of Carrie as a cousin, but bitterly regret that I did not know her. I was led to understand that Carrie lived in either Saxthorpe or Corpusty for most of her life and that there are Faircloth graves of relatives in Saxthorpe Church graveyard. I'm ashamed to admit that I have never ventured yet to find out.
Additional notes mention 'Mr Owen' as being the gentleman with the beard standing in front of the door, and that 'Ernest' died in the war and there was reference to an 'Uncle Bob' .... so these two men must feature somewhere in the photograph too.
Inscribed on the reverse are the notes made by the picture framer (interestingly a profession I have followed for 50+ years in Holt!) which strongly suggests he was framing the photograph for F. Faircloth. My guess is that this was for Fred Faircloth, the mill manager who features in the fine photograph accompanying your wonderful editorial on Corpusty Mill. 
Michael Hill - 12th August 2018

From 1890 to 1892 Samuel Goldsmith also had the lease for Foulsham towermill

North of the railway bridge & on the west side of the road to the village were MILL VILLAS built by Samuel Goldsmith for mill workers. A tablet was inscribed S. G. 1898
Harry Apling - 14th July 1972

The above map clearly shows where a new cut had been dug below the mill to straighten the dramatic meanders in the river that would have impeded and slowed the flow of water leaving the mill as well as greatly contributing to flooding the low lying meadows. This could well have taken place c.1870 when the mill was enlarged.

The above left hand photograph shows Charles Pegg, his wife Florence (née Bean) and their 3 eldest children, Charles, Arthur and Georgina. Charles was Mrs. Goldsmith's carter and it's said that he kept the horses in his outhouse. It is also said that he held fisticuff boxing matches outside his house in what became known as Fighter's Yard and that he was known as Fighter Pegg. The house was later demolished apart from the well. The Pegg family were residents of Corpusty and Saxthorpe for at least two hundred years and at the time the above photographes were taken, Charles' brother Philip was also living in the village with his wife Anne and working as a fishmonger.

The ford was quite deep and cars would often get stuck. A horse was kept on hand nearby to pull them out.