Thursday 9/10/25  Howard saw a kingfisher flying along the river on the way to the mill, we also saw a pair of swans in the river. At the mill we loaded the Gator truck with tools as we had maintenance to do on our bridge and fallen branches opposite the bridge to bring back for use on our woodburner stove which we will need soon.

We all went to the bridge which Howard put across, he cut brambles away with the long lopper. Howard, Emma and Eddie went over and cut the fallen branches from the ditch, brought them back across the bridge and loaded them into the Gator.

Most of the screwheads holding the bridge floor down had disappeared under the surface and the flooring was peeling up, so I removed and replaced the screws with screw cups under them to hold the flooring layer in place.

Eddie took the logs back and got the saw horse out, he and Howard cut the logs small enough to fit our woodburner. Emma bagged the logs as the log store is full. It was a pleasant day so we had lunch outside again and saw a kestrel flying above us.

There were a few places on the bridge where the floor sagged, so I cut several extra supports from a length of wood and fitted them using structural screws, one position near the pivot point was not accessible so I took the pivot bar out and tipped the bridge on its side so I could access the underneath to fit the last support.

When I put the bridge back upright, the pivot bar wouldn’t line up with the hole, so I went back to get tools to pull it round and line it up, but when I returned Howard and Eddie had already done it and put the bar through, so we put the counterweight box of bricks back and swung the bridge away from the river.

The storm at the weekend had blown our fence posts over, so Howard and I repaired the trench fence, Emma had already put the cistern fence back.

Emma checked to see if there was any compost and found secateurs in the compost bay, so we’ll clean and oil them, they should be usable. There is a small amount of compost. Howard set up a wildlife camera to monitor the animal runs down the river bank. On our journey back we saw a pair of little egrets flying near The Maltings.

Wednesday 15/10/25  We had a group visit from 24 members of Kings Lynn u3a local history group. I gave a brief history of the mill, then gave out our self guided visitor maps and everyone looked round the mill and visitor centre.

We had home made cakes and biscuits made by Emma & Anne Marie and we made hot drinks for everyone. Our model mill and mill workers research was on display and we put our signs out explaining the features of the site. We appreciate all the donations we were given. I forgot to take pictures until after most people had left.

Thursday 16/10/25  When we switched on our multimedia screens yesterday the big one wouldn’t work, so I took my Avo meter today to do some tests, the power supply to the screen was live, so the screen has failed at only 3 years old.

Our donation box was working yesterday, but when I tried it today it would not work, I tested it with the Avo but could not find the fault, so I took it back home to repair. The battery terminals just needed cleaning, I have now got it working again.

Eddie cleaned and oiled the secateurs Emma found in the compost bay, they are now working so he put them with the garden tools. Eddie also freed the wagon door latch which had seized up, he got it moving by tapping the pin with a hammer and oiling it.

There were two fallen trees on the Nar Valley Way, so I brought my chainsaw and we loaded up loppers and handsaws and went across our bridge to the first tree which was just up from the bridge.

The tree was completely blocking the path, we had to cut a lot of Ivy away with the bow saw and loppers before we could get to the trunk, which we cut through with chainsaws. Anne Marie joined us and helped clear Ivy away. We had to put bricks under the trunk and lever it up when the bow saw got trapped. We managed to cut through and roll the trunk off the track to clear the path.

We went back to have lunch and saw pied and grey wagtails at the mill. Anne Marie gave us some Norfolk Shortcake left over from yesterday. We then went to the smaller fallen tree further down the track, there were lots of brambles which we had to clear with loppers before we could cut the tree away and clear the track.

The river level is still very low. Our garden outside the visitor centre still has cosmos, foxgloves and coreopsis flowering. My last job was getting a fallen fence sign out of the river which Anne Marie told us about, while Eddie made us a last cup of coffee.

Graham Bartlett  

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