Jay's Mill, Button's Mill or Victoria Road Mill is a

tower mill A tower mill is a type of vertical windmill consisting of a brick or stone tower, on which sits a wooden 'cap' or roof, which can rotate to bring the sails into the wind.Medieval science, technology, and medicine: an encyclopedia (2005), 520 Thi ...

at Diss,

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

which has been truncated and converted to residential accommodation.

History

Button's Mill was built c1817 on what was then Diss Common for Thomas Jay who had purchased the land that the mill was built on in that year. Jay also owned a

post mill The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. Its defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single central vertical post. The vertical post is supported by four quarter bars. These ar ...

at Stuston Road. The mill was built with eight sails, but these were blown off on 28 November 1836. Jay's post mill at Stuston Road had been blown down in a gale four days earlier. The tower mill was repaired by

millwright A millwright is a craftsman or skilled tradesman who installs, dismantles, maintains, repairs, reassembles, and moves machinery in factories, power plants, and construction sites. The term ''millwright'' (also known as ''industrial mechanic'') ...

Henry Rush, but now only sported four sails; a replacement post mill was also built. Thomas Jay died on 3 April 1847 and the mill was run by his widow Sarah. It was offered for sale by

auction An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...

on 5 September 1853 at the King's Head Hotel, Diss but remained unsold. It was again offered for sale October in 1856 and purchased by Michael Hawes. He was succeeded by William Hawes who retired in 1880. The mill was sold by auction at the Kings Head Hotel and bought by John Button. Button had worked various post mills around Diss and been in business for 24 years at that time. A steam engine had been installed as auxiliary power by this date. In 1892, roller milling equipment was added. The steam engine was later replaced by an oil engine. A sail was lost in 1928, by which time the mill was being worked by John B Button. The mill worked on a single pair of sails until 1929 when the fantail was damaged. The remaining pair of sails, which had previously been on Mount Pleasant Mill,

Framlingham Framlingham is a market town and civil parish in Suffolk, England. Of Anglo-Saxon origin, it appears in the 1086 Domesday Book and was part of Loes Hundred. The parish had a population of 3,342 at the 2011 census and an estimated 4,016 in 20 ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

, were sold c1936 and found further use at Terling Mill,

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. They were transported to

Terling Terling (pronounced Ter-ling) is a village and civil parish in the county of Essex, England, between Braintree to the north, Chelmsford to the south-west and Witham to the east. History A settlement at Terling dates back to Roman times. Acc ...

by rail and completed their journey by horse and cart. The cap was removed and the mill truncated by one storey. It was then used as part of a saw mill. In 1968, the mill was purchased and converted to residential accommodation.

Description

Button's Mill was a six-storey tower mill with a domed cap which was winded by a fantail. It was built with eight sails but rebuilt with four ''double Patent sails'' in 1837. The sails had a span of and were wide. They were carried on a cast-iron ''windshaft''. The wooden ''brake wheel'' was diameter, with iron segment teeth. The four pairs of French Burr

millstone Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, used for triturating, crushing or, more specifically, grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs: a s ...

s were driven overdrift.

Millers

*Thomas Jay 1817-1847 *Sarah Jay 1847-56 *William Michael Hawes 1856-80 *John Button 1880-83 *John & William Edward Button 1883-1922 *John B Button -1929 Reference for above:-

References

External links

Windmill World
webpage on Button's Mill. {{Windmills in England Windmills in Norfolk Tower mills in the United Kingdom Grinding mills in the United Kingdom Industrial buildings completed in 1817 Diss, Norfolk