a Deed of Assignment:-

Norfolk Chronicle, 20 September 1834

Notice to Debtors and Creditors of LEEDS RICHARDSON of Salthouse, Miller Deed of Assignment for benefit of Creditors.
Mr Stokes, Solicitor, Fakenham. 18 September 1834.

His stock in trade, furniture etc. were then sold by auction.


Norfolk Chronicle, 27 September 1834

Sale by WM ANSELL on Tuesday 30 September 1834
All the STOCK in TRADE, Household Furniture etc. of Mr Leeds Richardson of Salthouse, Miller,
(Under a Deed of Assignment for the benefit of his Creditors at 11 o'cl;ock. Comprising about 8 coombs of wheat, seven and a half sacks of flour, quantity of meal and offal, sacks and sack barrows, bags, beams, scales and weights with all the mill fixtures belonging to the tenant such as jigger, jumper, straps, wedges, roller, brushes, sail cloths, lever, ladders, flour and meal bins and sundry other property in the mill. Also two flour carts and harness, capital harness mare, saddle and bridle, sow and 8 pigs, hay engine, iron crow, water cart, wheel-barrow, grindstone, about half a rood of potatoes, four pig trough small quantity of barley, small piece of hops, bushel and other measure etc.
The Household furniture . . .


The property was then to be let again:-

Norfolk Chronicle, 11 October 1834

To Millers
To be Let with Immediate Possession
A Small TOWER WINDMILL situate at Salthouse near the Market Town of Holt, driving two pair of French Stones, with comfortable Dwelling house, Garden and about one acre of Land.
Enquire of Mr Ransom, Solicitor, Holt; if by letter, free of postage.

3 Evidence from the Thirtle watercolour

Harry Apling told me that there is a picture of the mill, owned by someone he knew who lived in Loughton, Essex. It so happened that I knew a person of the same name, a fellow veterinary surgeon. I wrote to him in 1984 and this is his reply:

‘I have a small water colour painting attributed to Thirtle of the Norwich School of painters dated 1831 that shows a windmill apparently a short distance away from the west end of the churchyard. My great grandfather Philip Keymer (1815-1887) was a millwright in Salthouse in 1841 and I suspect this may have been where he worked or possibly at Holt. The Keymer family lived at Salthouse from 1782 to 1886 and one of their properties is still called "Keymer Cottage". It is situated on the Coast Road between the path to the church and the road junction.’
We finally arranged a meeting in 2001. He brought the water colour and the final piece of the jigsaw was put in place.
Conclusions
There is conclusive historical evidence, both from early maps and from sale notices in the contemporary press that there was a mill at the top of Grout’s Lane, dating from the early part of the 19th Century. This has been confirmed by the exposure of brick foundations by Mr K. Brown in the 1950s and our own excavations. No doubt hauling wagons or tumbrils loaded with sacks of corn up the hill would have presented a difficulty. An additional trace horse would have been used and the severe right-hand turn at the top of Grout’s Lane was facilitated by the corner of ‘Hill Top’ being built in a rounded fashion which can still be seen (the white line in the picture is an arrow pointing to the rounded corner).
There is yet another unanswered question. Was the mill a post mill, smock mill or tower mill? Mrs Radley told us it was a post mill; Bryant’s map of 1826, Harry Apling and evidence from the Thirtle painting, suggest it was a smock mill; all the ‘for sale’ notices describe it as a tower mill. The last named description fits in with the finding of substantial brick foundations. However, it is still possible that either a post or a smock mill preceded the tower mill.

           photo © Dr Keymer 2002