William’s father Robert had died in September 1777 and subsequent to taking over the family milling business William had taken the big decision to do a complete rebuild of the mill. Did he increase its capacity or had it for a long time been a large mill with two pairs of stones, one for wheat and one for rye?

As we shall see, this clause is later invoked.

The 1831 Inventory

William Colls did not seem to have a totally lucky few years as miller in Itteringham. The parish burials register shows that he and his wife Mary suffered the loss of their daughter Mary in 1788 and the loss of twins George and John on the same day in 1789, presumably in childbirth. Until and indeed for some time after the 1800 burial of Hannah Colls aged 87 (no doubt the wife of Robert) there are no more Colls burials in the village. It seems William moved away. By early 1791 John Shelton had taken his place in the mill, as we know from the poor rate accounts.

In turn by early 1800 Thomas Roberts had taken over as miller and remained there at least until the end of 1811 when the poor rates book ends. He was still in the village and presumably the mill in 1825, since in October of that year he was a witness at his daughter’s wedding in the parish church. He died aged 68 in March 1830 and was buried in Itteringham churchyard. At the moment we do not know precisely the occupancy sequence from then until the late 1830s. But we do know that an inventory of the mill mechanism was done in 1831, presumably at the time of a change of tenant.

The inventory gives a good description of what has now become a water mill driving three pairs of stones:

The 1838 Repairs

On then to the repairs of 1838; which, from the details in the various tradesmens’ bills, was clearly a major rebuild of the water conduits, the mill works and the adjacent buildings.

As an introduction to the work described and bills submitted, we have an agreement drawn up between William Lemmon, Lord Walpole now the Earl of Orford’s steward or agent at Wolterton, and John Cook Beane now the miller. This commits to some contributions to costs by Orford which apparently supersedes the old lease obligation on the tenant to do repairs. By the absence of any other lease deed in these papers it seems likely that the 1783 lease deed, although more than four years over its term, was still effectively the basis for tenancy and rental arrangements. A commitment is also made to begin a new lease.

White’s 1845 Norfolk Directory tells us that in Buxton there was a corn millers and merchants called Cooke and Gambling (John). So John Cook Beane and John Gambling were in business together and W. Lemmon could readily assume that in signing the agreement Beane would deliver Gambling’s written disclaimer to the machinery.

There then follow a dozen or more bills, receipts and scraps of paper with calculations on the division of costs between landlord and tenant. These tell us what was done in the repairs by millwright, carpenter, blacksmith and bricklayer.

James Winterborn the Millwright

Winterborn of Aylsham submitted a bill in two parts for £50 11s 7½d for the period 21 June to 11 August 1838 and for £8 19s 4½d in September 1838. The major items include:

Nathaniel Brett the Carpenter/Wheelwright
After the millwright’s work the timber and carpentry bills were the most significant. Itteringham’s wheelwright Nathaniel Brett did the work, assisted by one man. His bill covers the period July to November 1838 and he charged Orford £6 14s 7d for more or less a month’s worth of time at 2/6d per day each for himself and his man.

Timber bills, over and above the sum charged by Winterborn, amounted to well over £10 in total; but not all purchases are itemised, with anonymous cash sums making up quite a large part of the total. At least some of the timber was bought from Isaac Preston and Son of Yarmouth.

Henry Hall the Blacksmith
The local strongman played his part with a bill covering his work from late July to early August 1838. Most of the items in his bill refer to hoops and bolts and nails. He also charged for hoops and spikons to the water gates and for new chains for them.

He also worked with Edward and Samuel Slipper from the village in 1839 to take down part of the ‘masheen in the mill’.

Thomas Ward the Bricklayer
It is clear from the main bricklayer’s receipt that substantial work had been done on the water courses. The receipt itemises work done between June and October 1838:

He charged himself and his labourer out at the less substantial sum of 3/4d per day for the two of them.

***

A handful of scraps of paper show various attempts to total the cost of work and to allocate costs between landlord and tenant. No single one of them appears to show a definitive total, but one shows a total of £124 ‘paid by Mr Beane’ and another allocates Mr Cook Beane £91. The total probably came to around £124 to £150.

A nice footnote brings us back to ‘dilapidations’ of the grinding stones. A copy of a note from W Lemmon, presumably to John Cook Beane, of October 1839 says that he is sending him ‘the copy of the lease of Itteringham Mill in which you will see Lord Orford’s claim for the mill stones’. It goes on to claim £16 for the full 9 inches of wear on the pair of stones called Cullens, 7 inches of wear on the Peak and 3½ inches on the French stone.
William Vaughan-Lewis - 31st May 2005
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