Ditchingham watermill was known to many as Rider Haggard's Mill. Although a mill on this site was documented as far back as 1240, the last structure disappeared c.1850. The story goes that part of the waterwheel was found near to where the mill used to be and was made into "something" for Lilias Rider Haggard. Along with Earsham and Ellingham it was one of the only three Norfolk watermills on the Waveney.

Back in the 1960s it was documented that the Oak timbered plates that supported the mill wheel still remain in the bank.

Baldry brought down to me a slab of oak which he is going to make into a stool. He had taken it out of the river bank by the old mill-race.  There has been a mill on the spot for centuries, but the earliest mention I have found is in the Parliament Rolls as follows:

Situation for a watermill - to be sold - a piece of meadow - whereon a watermill stood which was lately burnt down. There is a good stream and it is a very desirable situation to erect another mill upon, as the river is navigable thence to Yarmouth.
Ipswich Journal - 13th July 1778

Another story goes...
An old miller called Lock was grinding grist for the farmers around. His poor old pony could scarcely pull a coombe of corn, so this strong man humped one sack and helped push the cart up the hills. He was a very honest man and his share was peck for a coombe.

George Baldry once lived in the mill cottage and it was possibly he that found the section of waterwheel mentioned above. His grandfather took over the mill cottage tenancy in the early 19th century. His son, George's father, took over the cottage in 1869.

I was interested to read your piece on Ditchingham Mill. My father's  family, James Basey-Fisher et. al., tenanted Home farm in Ditchingham from the Rider Haggards (or Cheneys as they were then named) from the 1940's through till the 1980's. Also, coincidentally, my grandfather, Wallace Skinner was born at Home Farm in 1887.
My father often met George Baldry at Mill house in his workshop where he was supposedly trying to develop a perpetual motion machine. I bought a copy of 'Rabbit skin cap' , by Lilias Rider Haggard, in the 1980's.
Mark Basey-Fisher - 2nd February 2017

I have just come across a photograph of a bridge at Ditchingham Mill on your Norfolk Mills website.
For some time I had been searching around Ditchingham and Outney for the whereabouts of a bridge where a photograph was taken some years ago for the cover of a record. I can see that this is the place I was seeking.
In the mid 1970s I was one of a band providing music for the banquets at the Three Tuns in Bungay. We decided to record an album of the music that we played there. It was called Among the Leaves so Green so we wanted a picture to reflect the title.
The photographer, Richard Barnes, (also now an established architectural historian and author) knew the ideal place, a bridge with over-hanging willows; and so we posed there with our instruments. It was an idyllic setting and I wondered if the bridge was still standing.
Judith Havens - 3rd November 2021

Following my recent correspondence to you about this iron bridge which appeared on your Ditchingham Watermill webpage, I set out to find out what had happened to the structure. Unhappily this was the result of my search :-

The pieces lie between trees not far from a fragment of a concrete structure, possibly part of the bridge's anchorpoint, which is on the riverbank upstream from this bridge :-

It is a pity that the bridge, which had long been an iconic image in sources relating the history of Ditchingham Watermill, should have met such an ignominious end. Its demise seems not to have been recorded, so many people mistakenly believe that this bridge constructed in 1922 by Rumsby is the Watermill bridge aka "Baldry's Bridge" :-

A nearby notice shows a drawing of the Watermill bridge, yet describes Rumsby's Bridge, adding to the confusion :-

I would be very interested to hear if anyone knows the date of the demolition of the bridge, and whether there were any efforts made to save it either by local bodies or by Historic England.
Judith Havens - 1st January 2022

1240: Watermill recorded on the site

Index of Wills 1705: Francis Barnes, miller (possibly windmiller)

Index of Wills 1718: John Beaumont, miller (possibly windmiller)

c.1778: Mill burnt down

June 1778: Mill land advertised for sale

1781: Mill rebuilt

March 1784: Mill advertised for sale by auction due to bankruptcy of new owners

1784: Mill demolished by new owners - holders of Outney Common grazing rights

Bryant's map 1826: Mill house

1869: George Baldry aged 4 and his parents moved to Mill House

1955: George Baldry, Mill House, aged 89