Extract from 1802 Map of Great Ellingham. Russell James Colman Plans
All rights reserved Norfolk Record Office Cat. Ref. C/Ca 1/84.
With kind permission of NRO
The above extract from the 1802 Inclosures Map of Great Ellingham shows the position of the Post Mill in Mill Lane.
Wikipedia describes a Post Mill as “the earliest type of European windmill. It’s defining feature is that the whole of the body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind“.
Grade II Listed Post Mill at Thorpeness, Suffolk
Photograph taken 2021
The post mill in Mill Lane, Great Ellingham may have looked similar to the post mill in the above photograph.
Owner & Occupier Thomas Steward
The Statement of Claims for the Great Ellingham Inclosure of 1800 includes a claim by Thomas Steward for one messuage, one windmill and one acre of land which he occupied. The premises are freehold. The messuage includes a house with outbuildings, mill, yard and garden.
Thomas Steward also claimed rights for the pasture of cattle on the commons and waste lands of the village and rights of cutting and taking firing, taking sand and clay for repairs, and any other rights he enjoyed with his property.
Steward also rented a barn and some 26 acres from Joseph Flodman Clover.
Wife & Children
The Great Ellingham Parish Registers reveal baptisms for at least 11 children of Thomas Steward and his wife Elizabeth appear between 1771 and 1782. These entries include twin girls who were baptised in 1775. Sadly, there are burial entries for six of the children (including the twins).
Owner Daniel Mack
A notice for the proposed sale of a freehold messuage with stable and outbuildings (in good repair) and a Capital Post Wind Mill in Great Ellingham appear in the Norfolk Chronicle on 2nd April 1808.
The premises are said to be well situated for trade. The owner is Daniel Mack.
I cannot find any entries for the Mack family in the Parish Registers, particularly around the time of Daniel Mack’s ownership of the post mill. In any event, he may not have occupied the mill.
Owner & Occupier William Bowles
By 1819, the mill (with the house and premises) is owned by William Bowles.
The Norfolk Chronicle of 30th September 1820 published a notice of an auction taking place at the Crown Inn, Great Ellingham on Friday, October 6th, 1820.
The auction includes a “Capital Post Mill with two pair of French stones, and going gears complete“; a dwelling house and cottage, barn, stable and outbuildings (all in good repair) and about one acre of arable land adjoining.
The proprietor is Mr William Bowles.
Wife & Children
On the 5th December, 1813, Matthew, the son of William Bowles and his wife Mary, is baptised in the Parish Church at Great Ellingham. William Bowles is described as a miller. Sadly, William and Mary Bowles buried Matthew just a few days later on December 13th.
I have not found any other children for this couple in Great Ellingham Parish Registers.
Owner Garrett Oddin Taylor
My investigations reveal that by 1829, the mill and premises are owned by a ‘Mr Taylor’.
Norfolk Mills website suggests that Garrett Oddin Taylor was the owner of the Post Mill in 1844, and that his tenant was John Sayer and others.
Occupier John Sayer
The census of 1841, shows miller John Sayer with his wife Mary Anne living in Great Ellingham. With the couple is apprentice miller, John Saunders and a servant William Whenn.
Children
The Great Ellingham Parish Registers include marriages for two children of miller John Sayer.
On the 6th April,1841, John Watling Sayer (then of St Margaret’s, Norwich) marries Ann Guyton.
Two years later on the 27th April, 1843, Sarah Sayer marries James Standley of Watton.
Move to Rockland All Saints
By 1851, John and Sarah Sayer move from Great Ellingham to Attleborough. However by 1861, the couple have moved to Rockland All Saints. They are still living in Rockland All Saints in 1871.
John Sayer died at Rockland All Saints in July, 1871 and was buried in the churchyard at Great Ellingham on July 29th. Sarah Sayer died in Great Ellingham, and was buried alongside her husband on April 27th, 1877.
Occupier Jeremiah Fielding
The census of 1851 shows 28 year old Jeremiah Fielding as the miller in Mill Lane, Great Ellingham. Fielding was born in Rockland All Saints.
Living with Jeremiah is his 29 year old wife Mary Ann (also born Rockland All Saints), their one year old son John Joseph and Mary Ann’s sister Elizabeth Harvey. 15 year old Robert Duffield born Old Buckenham is Jeremiah’s apprentice.
Occupier William Stackwood
10 years later, the 1861 census finds 24 year old miller, William Stackwood, in Mill Lane, Great Ellingham. He is with his 23 year old wife Elizabeth, children Hannah aged 4, John 2 and four month old Louisa.
William’s grandmother, 78 year old widow Martha Miles, is also with the family along with a journeyman miller, 25 year old Charles Chaston. Within a few years, the Stackwood family had moved out of Great Ellingham.
Revised & Updated 26 October 2026
Sources:
1842 Great Ellingham Estate Map: estate of John Barnard held at the Norfolk Record Office catalogue reference DS 80
1819 Map of estate of John Barnard at Great Ellingham held at the Norfolk Record Office catalogue reference MC 2580
1800 Inclosure Commissioner’s Particulars and Valuation held at the Norfolk Record Office catalogue reference MC 2213/119, 941X7
Norfolk Mills Website http://www.norfolkmills.co.uk/Windmills/gt-ellingham-postmill.html – accessed 01.07.2019
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_mill – accessed 01.07.2019
Norfolk Chronicle 2nd April 1808
Norfolk Chronicle 30th September 1820
Great Ellingham Parish Registers Norfolk Record Office PD/609. Also available at FamilySearch.org
1841 census HO107/781/8
1851 census HO107/1823/52; HO107/1823/112
1861 census RG9/1237/127; RG9/1237/82
1871 census RG10/1841/121