The end of year review is also sent to the annual parish meeting, held in the first quarter of the new year.

Narborough Bone Mill is opposite the Nar Valley Way public footpath accessed from River Close. The mill is about a mile from the village, volunteers are there most Thursdays when walkers can cross our footbridge and look around.

We had another busy year at the bone mill, we started by making a blue tit nest box from salvaged wood, the camera from a hedgehog box was re-used in it, as we’ve never seen any hedgehogs. The blue tit box was not occupied this year but we saw great tits and stock doves raising chicks again in the other boxes with cameras. Kestrels nested in the tawny owl box opposite the mill, we saw their activity from across the river and watched the youngsters fledge.

We cleared a number of fallen trees from the footpath again using our battery chainsaw, we cut them up to use on our wood burner in our railway wagon volunteer base. We also repaired and painted the bench seat on the Nar Valley Way a few times, it’s worth it as we often see walkers using it. Our swinging footbridge across the river needed repairs again so we put aluminium checker plate on top of the boards which has given it a new lease of life.

Fred made an incinerator from an oil drum which we’ve had good use out of, although we couldn’t use it during the drought due to the risk of wildfires, there was a serious fire at Shouldham woods only 3.5 miles away, we were at the mill that day and could smell the smoke.

We had several sightings of kingfishers and I managed to get photos, we also captured night time images of an otter with a trail camera. The fallen river wall had birds nesting in holes, and vegetation grew up in front of it which looks more natural.

We made a water bowser for the mower trailer to water the wildflower meadow, but after another year of poor flowering we’ll leave it as a grass meadow next year. Flowers failed due to grasses taking over and out competing them, which often happens after a few years. Wildflowers grow well in our other gardens and we seeded a new bare soil area with grass and wildflower mix, so we’ll still have wild flowers at the mill.

We were given a wooden display cabinet to use in our visitor centre which we fitted lights to, which looks really good with all the finds illuminated. This replaced a metal shelving rack which was re-used in our shed. 

We removed the trailer seats, and made ramps so we could take our mower to the mill in it, this saves petrol as we had to drive the mower two miles whenever we used it, although we didn’t need to cut grass during the drought. Trailer seats were put back for our open days to take visitors from the car park to the mill along the riverside track.

In July Anne Marie and her friend walked the full length of the Nar Valley Way from Kings Lynn to Gressenhall, staying in a B&B overnight. Anne Marie looks after the gardens at the mill which flowered well, pink lupins flowered for the first time and we started using compost this year from the compost bay we made in 2021. We also had visitors who looked round the mill one Thursday who were walking the entire Nar Valley Way and a visit from Swaffham u3a ramblers who did the circular walk.

In August I told the story of how I got involved with the bone mill with display boards in Narborough church as part of their ‘Everyone Has a Story’ event and my interview about the bone mill history was broadcast on BBC Radio Norfolk in October. Ryan who volunteers at the mill is now a Breckland Councillor, he appeared in Lynn News as he is one of the youngest councillors.

We were given drone pictures of the bone mill including aerial views by Steve who flew his drone from the footpath and another historic photo of the bone mill turned up in October showing the building and surrounding land as well as photos of boats along the river, these are all on our website. We were given a painting of the water wheel which is on display in the visitor centre.

Our last open days had a record number of visitors, we had to go and buy more cakes! The next open days will be in September 2027 as we will now open only once a year as weather, attendance and support is better in September. 

For more information about the bone mill, see the website www.bonemill.org.uk

Graham Bartlett, Secretary, Narborough Bone Mill                          Blog --/12/26

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