Open Day at Hardley Mill

SOMETIMES God has a wicked sense of humour. After months of delays Hardley Mill is holding an open day tomorrow to demonstrate the sails on the windmill working properly again. You might recall from previous posts that the mill has been painstakingly restored over many years, with the sails returning during the summer. Those sails turned for the first time back on October 9th, but this open day was to be the first chance for the wider public to see everything go round. "Hopefully there will be some wind and the mill will be operating," wrote Hardley's website man Richard Rockley a few weeks ago. Well yes, this weekend's storms means there should be plenty of wind. Perhaps rather more than the old girl can handle. Shuttle buses run from Langley and Hardley Village Hall from midday.

Wherryman's Way: The highlights package

I DID the Wherryman's Way the old-fashioned way at the weekend ..from the North Sea by boat.
This sort of stuff is all new to me, so simple things like being at the mercy of tide and (bridge opening) times were all very much a novelty. We had planned to leave Southwold at 9am ...only to realise that we were stuck on the putty at our moorings. Afloat at 10.30 ,we punched the tide up to Yarmouth arriving at Hall Quay by 3pm. Yarmouth looks different from the river. It is a vast industrial estate: huge ships, mountainous car scrapyards, tall boatsheds.
The skipper had booked the bridge openings (Haven and then Breydon) for 4.15pm so the sun was already quite low by the time we headed across Breydon Water (pictured) . Of course the pace is different too. Yarmouth to Reedham is the best part of a day by foot. So on board the good yacht Limon it was like watching a TV highlights package; Berney Arms, Polkeys Mill, the New Cut, Reedham, Cantley, all came and went very quickly. We were blessed with a beautiful sunset and photography somehow seemed easy. Then moored in front of Hardley Mill I spotted the wherry Maud. A wherry, a windmill and a sunset - the perfect shot surely! At which point my camera ran out of power. We'll make that time, tide, bridges and batteries shall we?

Medieval mystics and other breaking news

I'VE JUST had a rude awakening on how quickly a book can become dated.
Earlier this summer, publication date for my book on the Wherryman's Way slipped from August 2009 to Spring 2010. And it's remarkable how much I've had to re-write as a result.
There's a new bridge across the Wensum of course, so we needed a few words on that plus a photo. And then they named it after Lady Julian, about whom I knew next to nothing. But she is fascinating, so she was well worth her own profile. (Top facts: she was the first woman to write a book in English and she probably wasn't called Julian. More details here.)
And if you have a profile you have to have some sort of image of the person ...which gets tricky with 14th century mystics. Thank goodness for the statue on the exterior of Norwich Cathedral. And just the very fact that the bridge exists, changes the dynamic in that part of Norwich so we needed a bit more in about how great King Street is. Just downstream, Greene King changed their mind on The Ferry Boat Inn in Norwich. So I've ditched the stuff about renovation and had to fudge something about its future being uncertain.
Meanwhile Coldham Hall Tavern is still closed down at Surlingham, but I'm assured it will be open by next Spring, so I've had to assume there. Then they put the sails on at Hardley Mill, which needed two trips to get a half-decent photo. English Heritage finally opened up Berney Arms with the help of Steve "Tug" Wilson, so I had to be a bit kinder about them.
And I used the heritage open days to do a museum crawl around Great Yarmouth, which helped bring a bit more personality to that chapter too.
All in all a decent excuse for not having posted a blog for three weeks I reckon. But buy the book as soon as it's published. After all, you wouldn't want to be out of date would you?

Hardley Mill: Setting sail again

BY MY reckoning it's 62 years since Hardley Mill last looked this good.
The new sails are on and this entire stretch of the Yare Valley looks the better for it.
As I walked back along the river towards Hardley Dyke this evening it made me think about how else this landscape had changed over those six decades. The answer, I suspect, is not a lot.
Farmers were still out harvesting - though with more machines and fewer people than they would have had in 1947. Geese still gather in the dusky stubble and warblers still hide in the reeds. I guess the Chinese water deer which bounded away from me, might not have run wild in those days, and there are certainly plenty more boats moored along the dyke. The major difference is how we use this environment. A major trade route has become a watery playground. Windpumps were once essential, now they are picturesque. But there's no denying that a Broads scene always looks better with one in the background A huge well done to everyone involved in the Hardley Mill project for reaching this major milestone.

* Earlier posts chart the moment the cap went on, and later the stocks.

Wherryman's Way: what's your favourite stretch?

HUMPTY Dumpty brewery partner Stephen George has been in touch. It turns out he and his family have become big fans of the Wherryman's Way over the last few years. For him the best bit is the stretch between Loddon and Reedham. "I love walking over those country lanes coming down to the ferry," he writes.
Which got me thinking. What's your favourite spot? Breydon Water, Wheatfen or maybe the newly-restored Hardley Mill? For me, the best places also happen to be the most inaccessible. All those windmills in the middle of nowhere between Reedham and the Berney Arms for example. Or The Slaughters, hidden until Rockland Broad until low tide. But having toyed with the ruins of St Saviour's Church and all that history bound up in Reedham Ferry, I'm plumping for Hardley Flood (pictured). It's stunningly beautiful, especially at dusk, and yet there's never anyone else there.

Hardley Mill: stocks but no sails

THEY'RE nearly there at Hardley Mill. Their open weekend had been billed as the chance to see it with sails on for the first time. The stocks (on which the sails hang) were in place, but illness means we will have to wait at least another 5-6 weeks for the full monty. That's a tad frustrating when you need a photo for your book which has to be with the publishers in 3 weeks time! But Hardley Mill has always worked in a different time dimension and this latest delay is small beer for a project which has already taken more than 17 years. Yesterday scores of people turned up as the mill was blessed by local associate vicar Richard Seel while today sees the Friends of Hardley Windmill out on their sponsored walk. And of course even when the sails are in place, there's yet more work to be done before its appold turbine pump lifts water again. One suspects there will always be something to do at Hardley Mill.

Hardley Mill: If the cap fits....

DON'T forget that next weekend is the first chance to see the newly-restored Hardley Mill. This picture from Richard Rockley shows the moment when the cap was gingerly put into place last month. By next week the sails will be on too. It's an amazing achievement by the small but indefatigable team behind the project. So that's May 9th and May 10th.
* Read the latest on the restoration here and get more on the open day
on the team's own website.