Burnham Overy Staithe Windmill

Template:Geobox Burnham Overy Staithe Windmill is a Grade II* listed building half a mile west of the village of Burnham Overy Staithe, Norfolk, England. It is on the landward side of the A149 King’s Lynn to Great Yarmouth coast road.

Description

Burnham Overy Staithe Windmill was built in 1816 by Edmund Savory, a datestone set in the brick work above the first floor has the inscription ES 1816. the tower is constructed of brickwork and is black tarred. The tower stands over six storeys and has a stage at the first floor level. The base has a diameter of 24 feet and the brickwork is 2 feet thick. The cap is constructed with horizontall boarding in the Ogee shape. The cap was topped with a ball finial. There is a 6 bladded fan. The 4 double shuttered sails with a span of 81 feet, each had 12 bays of 3 shutters are now fixed in a Southern direction. The sails drove 3 set of millstones.

The 20th Century

The windmill ceased working commercially in 1919 and was sold to a Mr Hughes in 1926. By this time all the mills internal machinery had been stripped out. Mr Hughes added a single story extension to the north east elevation and turned the windmill in to a holiday home. In 1957 a fixed cap, new 62ft stocks weighing a ton each, skeleton sails, a new stage and fan that are seen today were installed by the specialist millwrights R. Thompson & Son of Alford of Lincolnshire. In 1958 Mr Hughes donated the windmill to the National Trust. Soon after this date the sails which had deteriorated badly and so had to be replaced. Since then the National Trust let it out as a Holiday home.