Strumpshaw smockmill stood on a hill to the south of the village. The 10 sided mill had a Norfolk boat shaped cap with a straight ridge that held a chain pole. Power to the machinery was supplied by 4 double shuttered sails, each with 8 bays of 3 shutters and 1 bay of 2 shutters.

A violent storm of wind and rain, such as had not been remembered since 1741. Happisburgh, Postwick and Strumpshaw windmills were blown down ...
Unknown newspaper re storm of 19th December 1770

There is a remarkable Windmill in this town supposed to stand upon the highest ground in Norfolk; it is seen at a vast distance and overlooks most of the neighbouring hundreds; from it Yarmouth and Lowestoft in Suffolk are easily distinguished and it has full command of the city of Norwich, not being distant above seven miles. Being situated near Buckenham Ferry, there is a delightful view of the river Yare meandering through the country till it falls into Breydon Broad near Yarmouth. The prospect from this windmill is the finest COUP D'OEIL in the county of Norfolk and the mill itself when the sails are going is a beautiful object as far as it can be seen.
Armstrong - 1781)

At this place is a remarkable Windmill supposed to stand on the highest ground in the county; for hence Yarmouth and Lowestoffe on the coast of Suffolk are easily distinguishable and it commands a full view over the adjacent hundreds and the city of Norwich and the meanderings of the river till it falls into Braydon Broad. The prospect from this eminence is justly esteemed the finest coup d'oeil in Norfolk; and the windmill, when the sails are going forms a conspicuous landmark to distant parts of the county.
The Beauties of England & Wales - J. Evans & J. Britton - 1810 (derived from Armstrong - 1781)

To be Let
For a term of years from Michaelmas next
STRUMPSHAW MILL
Enquire of A. L. Womack, Mettingham, Bungay.
Norfolk Chronicle - 6th January 1827

Situations Vacant
WANTED, a strong active LAD as an APPRENTICE to the MILLING Business.
Apply at Strumpshaw Mill, Norfolk.
Norfolk News - 6th February 1869

Frederick William Kemp was born in 1841 and was master miller at Elsing_watermill when he married in 1868. He ran Witton_(Blofield_postmill from 1879 - 1879, then Croxton_postmill and towermill from 1883 - 1890 and was at Strumpshaw smockmill in 1896.

Smithdale's Day Book 1882

The smock mill was demolished in 1916 having closed in 1908.  It was left, unstable, on a pinnacle of high ground while the surrounding area of some 30 acres was quarried for sand and gravel. The pit was worked to extinction by 1973, including the mill site, and the whole area became a NCC landfill site.
The other 'mill' often crops up and refers to a wind pump on the marshes by the River Yare. It was usurped by steam power and is marked on some maps as 'Strumpshaw Mill' (obviously recalled from the days of turning sails). The main quarry was operating by 1881 but there had been pockets of excavations nearby, in various fields around the site on what is Strumpshaw Hill, an eminence of minerals left by the Ice Age. Geologists refer to it as part of The Lowestoft Till and being 130ft above sea level, was the ideal mill site.
The mill, according to living memories noted in 1981, definitely succumbed to the the quarry.  The workings became so close that the foundations were undermined.  After the mills demolition the timbers were taken away for reuse at Salhouse, not too distant.
Timber from the demolished mill went to some "building" - according the reliable old chap who gave me the story.  He would have been a teenager at the time, pre 1916, and had witnessed the sails turning during the end of its working life, from the neighbouring village of Blofield. Another Strumpshaw man, a fisherman at the end of the 19th cent, had often said that he could spot the sails turning as he entered Gt Yarmouth harbour, if the the sun was glinting at the right angle.  Even today, we can see Gt Yarmouth from the top of the hill although the ground has not been returned to its original contours.
Stephen Peart - 15th June 2010

Henry Burstal of Loddon in his will also left to wife Maria
"also all that Wind Mill called a smock mill with the dwelling house Granary Outbuildings land and hereditaments and premises situate in Strumpshaw in Norfolk standing upon Leasehold Land" 

In 1851 young John Chapman aged 21 & William aged 15, sons of John Chapman of Loddon and nephews of Maria are  to be found at Strumpshaw Mill with Maria then a widowed Annuitant.
She left the Strumpshaw Mill to James Arthur Aldous her Executor, he died in 1899 in Beccles. No indication of when he sold it on
Elvie Herd - 2nd September 2018

Emanuel Bowen's map of 1749 showed a total of 8 corn mills:

Briningham postmill,
East Wretham postmill
Fincham postmill
Poringland postmill
South Creake Common postmill
St. Benet's Abbey towermill
Strumpshaw smockmill
Tacolneston postmill

Copyright © Jonathan Neville 2009