Narborough organisations have the opportunity to report on their activities over the past year at the Annual Parish Meeting on 4/3/24 which is open to the public.
Narborough Bone Mill report March 2024
The remains of Narborough bone mill include a large water wheel which can be seen from the Nar Valley Way footpath which can be accessed from River Close. Volunteers work on site every Thursday when visitors can cross our footbridge and look around our visitor centre to see finds discovered from digging the site in 2015.
Our Wildflower Meadow flowered for the first time in late May. We put a picnic bench and insect hotels in the meadow. We cut paths through the meadow all summer and invited the public to join us to see the flowers, we had many visitors. The meadow was created with a Norfolk Community Foundation grant.
We opened for Mills Weekend in May when we also celebrated the Coronation of King Charles lll. We held Heritage Open Days in September, both events were well attended with some excellent feedback from visitors. We had our water wheel turning at both events and our model of the mill was on display.
Bone mill volunteers cleared Narborough Church yard of brambles & nettles, and cut back the public footpath next to the Church. We kept grass cut on the public footpath opposite the mill through the summer and cleared fallen trees which were blocking the footpath.
We removed debris from our river wall which collapsed into the river early last year, we plan to replace the wall this spring after seeking professional advice.
We had a stand at Narborough Fair with finds and displays from the mill on show including a video of the water wheel turning and a slideshow of the meadow in flower.
We put up a Kestrel box and several Bat boxes left over from our Breckland Council Green Grant in August. Several bird boxes have nest cameras and we watched Jackdaws and Great Tits raising their chicks again this year. A Kingfisher nest tunnel will be built into the new river wall when its rebuilt.
In September Peter Wilkinson, Breckland Council Chairman visited the mill with his group of walkers on a sponsored charity walk which he organised.
We gained another volunteer in September, Howard, a retired Fireman from Heacham, who plans to move nearer to Narborough this year. Barry who volunteered with us from 2016 to 2020 passed away in July and will be sadly missed.
Our next open days will be National Mills Weekend on 11 & 12 May, we will be open 11am to 4pm. There is free entry, parking and refreshments. Details will be on our website and in Nar Valley News.
We are actively recruiting volunteers, if you would enjoy light work at our historic, tranquil riverside location with plenty of wildlife to watch, please contact us through our website www.bonemill.org.uk
Graham Bartlett
Project Co-ordinator
Narborough Bone Mill
Normally there would be a link to the minutes of the meeting, but as of 29/5/24 there are still no minutes for this meeting on the council website, nearly 3 months after the meeting.
As a result, this will be the last report prepared for an Annual Parish Meeting, if the minutes are not published on the council website within a reasonable timeframe, the information is out of date by the time its made available to the public several months later, so its not worth preparing an up to date report.
I will continue to write a review of the year on our website at the end of December and will make a cut down version available for the meeting. I will publicise our activities on social media to keep the public informed with upto date information.
Graham Bartlett
Interactive Plan Activity Green Grant Wildflower Meadow Gallery Volunteer Report 2023
