Each December I report on our main activity and news from the year, which used to be included in the last blog of the year, but from now on will be a separate report in the Articles section. This review will also be used for the Annual Parish Meeting in March, as minutes of the meeting are not put on the council website for many months afterwards, so there's no point writing an upto date report specially for the meeting.
Review 2025
2025 marked 10 years since restoration work started at the bone mill which we celebrated at our May and September open days, we also celebrated the 80th anniversary of VE Day in May with a Breckland Council grant. New visitor guide maps were introduced at the September open days which were popular.
Jan’s bone mill workers research was completed in January and was on display at both open days and on our website. This includes details of fatal accidents and a picture of one of the workers.
We had a meeting in February to decide what to do at the end of the HLF grant period (December 2025) when we are no longer bound by the grant terms, but we decided we would continue with open days, volunteering and our website.
Jonathan supplied and installed owl boxes along the Nar Valley Way, and Rob gave us owl boxes he made which we installed in trees at The Maltings, opposite the public footpath.
We cleared a number of fallen trees blocking the Nar Valley Way footpath this year, we cut them up and used them for firewood in our railway wagon volunteer room.
Anne Marie made a new garden in front of our visitor centre and planted flowers which all bloomed well including cosmos and sunflowers. In April the volunteers all walked down the river to see the tulip fields.
Our wildflower meadow was not as successful this year due to the very dry spring, its not practical to water the whole meadow, so when we re-seeded in Autumn we limited sowing to a smaller area so we can water it if needed. The covered brick floor which was part of the meadow has now been left as a lawn, as thin soil prevented flowers growing there.
The barn owl box previously used by jackdaws was taken over by stock doves this year, we watched their chicks being raised as well as great tits which nested again in the other nest box with camera. We put the camera cables in more trunking as animal runs had eroded soil and exposed them.
We had to repair our insect hotels, butterfly boxes and a dormouse box this year as they are getting old. The solitary bee box we made in 2024 was used, we saw bee activity around it and saw larvae and pollen through the Perspex windows.
We repainted and refurbished several tables and bench seats, including a picnic bench donated to us. We planned to repaint bench seats in the church yard again, but the church now have their own volunteers.
We had visits from walkers on the footpath, and Kings Lynn u3a local history group attended with 24 members in October.
Our fallen river wall has not been addressed yet for various reasons but we are hoping to carry out these works in the near future.
We made a storage compound in November, this has tidied several areas of the site and made more room in our shed. We also made another log store as our fire wood was overflowing.
Our next open days will be 9 & 10 May 2026. For more information about the mill and to contact us, see our website www.bonemill.org.uk
Graham Bartlett
Secretary
Narborough Bone Mill
Review 2024 March 2025 Report Volunteer Mill Workers Blog (Late December)
Thursday 4/12/25 It was a cold rainy day so Eddie lit the fire and we had tea in the wagon before starting work. We noticed the river level is higher this week, there is more water behind the water wheel than before.
Our first job was sorting out the visitor centre loft, I went up and passed things down to Eddie, there were two wooden boxes which we'll convert into bird nest boxes. There were also lots of buckets and storage tubs which we put in the compound. I put metal and plastic stakes in the pallet which forms the compound wall, this keeps them tidy.
I also put chairs from the visitor centre in the compound under black material to keep them clean, this gives much more space in the visitor centre which I used to split pallet wood for kindling with the log splitter, Eddie used an axe outside to split some as well, which gave us two more tubs of kindling which we put in the wagon to dry.
We had hot sausage rolls again for lunch in the warmth of the wagon. In the afternoon Eddie logged up branches which were cut from a tree to make room for the compound and I put them in the new logstore we made last week along with some of the logs stored outside which Eddie brought over.
We covered the rest of the outside logs with black material to keep them dry until there is room for them in a logstore. We then filled up the bird feeders. When we got back to The Maltings we saw a heron fly up into a tree.
Graham Bartlett
Interactive Plan Activity Volunteer Previous Projects Open Days
Thank you for attending our open days, we would appreciate it if you would fill in our feedback form to help us improve the visitor experience.
We made our solitary bee box in November 2024, it has Perspex covering slots in the wood so we can watch progress of the eggs and larvae. There is a mud tray on top which bees use to line the slots and seal between each egg cell, they put a final mud plug at the end of the slot.
We noticed the box was being used on 15/5/25 when we saw some slot ends sealed up, we pulled out the cores and saw the slots filled with eggs and pollen.
Female Solitary bees lay an egg with a supply of pollen and nectar in each cell for the larvae to feed on when it hatches. Bees seal each cell with a mud plug in between.
Male eggs are laid towards the front of the slot so they emerge first and are ready to mate the following year.
Female eggs hatch into larvae and eat the pollen, then hibernate for around 11 months in the nest through summer and winter. The following spring, the larvae pupate, turn into adult bees and emerge from their nest.
I made a similar box for my garden which was also partially used.
We will keep watch on the nest box at the mill and keep this page updated with progress.
Graham Bartlett
The Little Egret is white with a black beak and yellow feet, its smaller than the Great White Egret which is the size of a Heron. Back to Wildlife
