Narborough organisations have the opportunity to report on their activities over the past year at the Annual Parish Meeting which is open to the public and was held on 1/4/19.
ANNUAL PARISH MEETING REPORT FOR NARBOROUGH BONE MILL MARCH 2019
In the last year the bonemill volunteers made a new visitor centre in the style of the original mill building under the guidance of Fred Munford. The project was financed by a £4,000 Tesco Bags of Help grant awarded last year.
The new building, named The Little Mill, is clad in wood with a shingle roof. It houses a museum showing many of the finds discovered when uncovering the site, with photos of the restoration and some historic pictures of the original mill buildings. Some of the river and mill exhibits from the old Heritage Centre museum are also on display including the large River Nar information panel. The new building also has a toilet, store room and workshop.
Also in the visitor centre is a detailed model of the mill complex made by David Turner which is displayed on open days. We opened to the public in May as part of National Mills Weekend and in September for Heritage Open Days, both of which were a great success, we had the water wheel turning on both occasions.
We still have our railway wagon which is the volunteer room and kitchen, we use the wagon every Thursday when we have a volunteer working party.
We get many visitors from the Nar Valley Way footpath on the opposite river bank, we have a swinging footbridge they can cross to join us for a cup of tea and biscuits and a look round the site. There is a new interpretation board on the footpath with information about the mill and restoration, the notice board frame is in the style of the original gate frame arch over the river.
Children from Narborough School collected topical items to bury in a time capsule at the mill, they enjoyed their visit which involved learning about the mill, trying out metal detecting and magnet fishing. We also had a visit from Narborough and Sporle schools recently who looked around the mill as part of their River Nar studies.
We have two metal detectorists who continue to find a wide range of objects such as old coins, an iron age brooch, musket balls and machinery parts. A very recent find was a Silver watch dated 1915. In the press the bone mill has featured in Suffolk Norfolk Life magazine and Lynn News.
We will be taking part in Mills Weekend on 11 & 12 May this year when we will be open to the public. We welcome new volunteers, and anyone interested in the mill or becoming a volunteer can find out more and contact us on our website www.bonemill.org.uk.
Graham Bartlett
