North Walsham Swafield Road post windmill stood in a field beside the Mundesley Road on the east side of the town. The mill had a roundhouse

The mill's main support beams were still standing in a field beside the Mundesley road in the 1960s.

Royal Exchange Fire Insurance policy 88636

To be Lett
Those desirable MILLS called SWAFIELD MILLS (being a Water_Mill and a Wind Mill). Also a capital new-built DWELLING HOUSE with Yard and Garden Ground. Granary, Stables & convenient Outhouses to the same belonging and 14 Acres, more or less, of good Meadow and Arable Land lying contiguous, situate and being in Swafield and North Walsham in the county of Norfolk, now in the occupation of Mr. George SHREEVE on Lease which expires on the 1st February 1788. These Mills are in good Trade and conveniently situated for a more extensive Trade, being within a Mile of North Walsham Market which is esteemed the best Corn Market in the County & within 5 miles of Dilham, from whence the River is navigable to Great Yarmouth. Possession may be had at Michaelmas next, the present Tenant having purchased an Estate in the Neighbourhood, which he intends entering upon at Michaelmas.
Particulars may be had by applying to Mr. William SACHER or Mr. George SHREEVE of Swafield; Mr. Richard ALLEN, Flour Merchant, Great Yarmouth or Mr. William DEARN, Attorney, North Walsham.
Norfolk Chronicle - 1st & 8th September 1787

To Millers
To be Let and Entered upon Immediately
A most desirable situation for a Miller, comprising an excellent WATER_MILL, Windmill, cottage part of a Dwelling house and 20 acres of arable and meadow Land, situate at Swafield, within one mile of North Walsham, a good corn market, late in the occupation of Mr. John Woollsey and now in the occupation of Mr. Edward Press.
Apply to Mr. Press on the Premises, Mr. Thomas Press, Loddon or Messrs. Woollsey, Yarmouth.
Norfolk Chronicle - 14th & 21st December 1816

To be SOLD by Private Contract
A Desirable Situation comprising a Water_Mill ... with a most substantial POST WINDMILL built principally with oak. Attached to the Water_Mill is a neat and convenient Dwelling house with a good barn, stable, hayhouse and various other offices, with about eight acres of capital meadow and arable Land, all Freehold.
Apply to Mr. Dyball, Engineer, North Walsham.
The above will be Sold either together or separately; if sold separately, the Windmill is to be removed.
Norfolk Chronicle - 16th June & 7th July 1827

To be Let With Possession at Old Michaelmas next
A Water_Corn_Mill and Post Wind Mill with an excellent House, garden, stables etc. and about 16 acres of Arable and Pasture Land, situate at Swafield near North Walsham, Norfolk.
The New Canal from Yarmouth to Antingham runs directly alongside the land adjoining the Water_Mill.
Apply to Mr. Woollsey, Yarmouth or on a Thursday to him at the Kings Arms Inn, North Walsham.
27 August 1828.
Norfolk Chronicle - 30th August & 6th September 1828

To MERCHANTS, MILLERS, and CAPITALISTS

To be Sold by Auction under a Commission of Bankrupt awarded against John Woollsey and John Secker of Great Yarmouth, wine and spirit merchants, dealers and chapmen, and on the application of the Mortgagees, at the Bear Inn, Bridge Foot, Great Yarmouth, on 8 September.
Lot 1. The 11 floor mill at Southtown
Lot 3. To be Sold by Auction at the King's Arms Inn, North Walsham 8 September. All that capital dwelling house, outbuildings, yard etc. together with the Water_Mill, cottage and granaries adjoining, and also a Wind Mill. The premises are situated in Swafield and North Walsham, and are now in the occupation of Mr. Benjamin Postle Woollsey, as tenant from year to year.
The Watermill and cottages etc. are leasehold of the Bishop of Norwich for a term of 21 years commencing 10 October 1827, at an annual rent of £3-13-4d. The Mill commands a good head of water, and drives two pairs of stones and two flour mills.
The Windmill, which is in excellent repair, is copyhold of the Manor of North Walsham.
London Gazette - 16th August 1831

To Millers, Merchants and others
SWAFIELD MILLS, Dwelling house, Granaries and several Inclosures of Arable and Pasture eLand will be Sold by Auction in separate Lots sometime in the month of October next of which due notice will be given in future papers unless sooner disposed of by Private Contract.
Particulars on application to James Wright, Land Surveyor, North Walsham.
North Walsham, 22 September 1831.
Norfolk Chronicle - 24th September 1831

Tithe Award 1843
Map, James Wright, Land Surveyor, Aylsham
Benjamin Postle Woollsey
Occupier: do

Robert Page married Benjamin Postle Woollsey's daughter Charlotte and took over the mill on the death of Benjamin Woollsey on 1st October 1860 after allegedly having fallen into the lock. In 1858 Robert Page was running Swanton_Abbott_towermill.

NOTICE
All Persons to whom Benjamin Postle Woollsey late of Swafield in the County of Norfolk was indebted at the time of his decease, are requested to send an account of their several demands to me or to my Co-Executor, John Woollsey of Swafield aforesaid, Miller and all persons who stand indebted to the said Benjamin Postle Woollsey at the time of his death are requested to pay the amount of their respective debts to me or to the said John Woollsey within one month of this date.

The Swafield mills have been sold by auction this week

At the end of the 18th century the corn business was booming. The population was growing, the standard of life rising, the labouring classes had abandoned the black bread of their forefathers and would eat nothing but wheat flour. Then came the long war with France - nothing could be imported to feed the growing the manufacturing towns. Wheat reached famine prices. The Seckers shared in the boom. In 1768 John Ransome, of North Walsham, had bought a small piece of land and build a windmill on it - a post mill. His neighbour undertook not to plant trees or place any obstruction "so as in any manner to incommode or prevent the wind or air from coming to the piece of land." If he broke the agreement John Ransome could enter his land and remove the obstruction. This is the mill whose remains, just outside North Walsham on the Mundesley road, are so often mistaken for a gibbet.

In 1779 Isaac Secker bought this mill, the mill house, and the land that went with it. At that time he was probably working the water-mill in partnership with his father, William Secker; in 1783 William retired, and leased the mill to his son. By then Isaac had built a handsome Georgian front to the mill house (his initials still adorn the side wall). It was a severe and dignified house, as befitted a respectable Quaker, but its size and little elegancies - the pelasters at the corners, a scroll-like curve on the bottom step - show that there was money to spare. Yet the Seckers were still simple people. In 1797 William married again, and his wife, Esther Barber, was illiterate, as were four of the relatives who signed the marriage certificate.

Until a few weeks ago Isaac Secker's portrait hung in the old house. It shows a well-set up man, with a long face and a long nose, and a commanding, but slightly anxious, expression. He may well have looked anxious; he had paid out a lot of money between 1779 and 1783; the property was mortgaged, and in 1785 the mortgage was increased. The war-time boom could not last for ever, and in 1831 his grandson John, to whom he had left the mill, was bankrupt.

The estate passed to the Seckers' relatives, the Woollseys. The water-mill was worked until about 1912; the post mill was used occasionally up to 1880. But by then the bottom had fallen out of country milling. Huge new steam mills stood at the ports to grind the imported corn on which the country was now fed; the Swafield mills were reduced to grinding feed for stock and selling offal. Now the mills, which have been for the past two centuries at least in the hands of these two related families, have been in the market.

The documents on which this account is based were brought to my notice by Mr. Stanley Watts, of North Walsham. Such records are particularly valuable. It is comparatively easy to reconstruct the lives of the gentry in past times, but the equally significant lives of less exalted persons are shrouded in obscurity. We know almost nothing about the rural middle-class who played such an important part in 18th century village life. It may be that there is still more to be discovered about the Secker family. Where are the records of the Swafield Quaker Meeting House? Who has got the Secker family Bible? Where is the original MS of John Secker's journal? I wish I knew.
Rachel Young, Eastern Daily Press - 4th October 1947

In 1962 a series of letters appeared in the Eastern Anglian Magazine concerning the original use of the woodwork with one writer claiming that the mill structure was in fact a double gibbet in the style of Caxton gibbet. The record was eventually put straight by a letter from Harry Apling.

Copyright © Jonathan Neville 2006