Bacton Wood Mill

Bacton Wood Mill is a watermill built around 1780. It features colourwashed brick and a roof made of concrete tiles, standing three storeys high with an attic. The mill has a brick plinth and a door on the right side, with two mullioned casements to the left, all set under segmental arches. The milling floor includes double access doors on the right and one similar casement, with two additional casements on the second floor. A gabled weatherboarded lucam, supported by arched braces, rises to the ridge of the roof and has casements on the sides and front. The rear elevation is similar but does not include the lucam. Inside, a timber staircase leads to a flat in the attic. A brick bridge over the leat from the mill pond supplies an undershot internal waterwheel, which drives a pit wheel and wallower on the upright shaft. Above this is a great spur wheel that drives stone nuts and governors. Additional wheels and pulleys at this level are related to an oil engine installed in the 20th century. The milling floor contains four pairs of stones, one equipped with a lifting crane and strapband. The second floor has a crownwheel, layshaft, and sackhoist machinery, while the attic floor has been converted for domestic use. Attached to the east of the mill is a two-storey miller's house with three bays, featuring a central door under a gabled porch and casement windows under segmental heads, all details dating from the 20th century. The house also has a gabled roof with concrete tiles. Bacton Wood Mill is notable as the birthplace and residence of Sir William Cubitt, who lived from 1785 to 1861. He was the inventor of self-regulating windmill sails in 1807 and the prison treadmill in 1818, and he was knighted in 1851 for his contributions to the Great Exhibition.