Steam Mill, Back Lane, Martham
When was the steam mill built? The Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1884 does not show any buildings on the site of the mill but the 1906 OS map does indicate buildings there. Kelly’s Directory of 1904 lists Edward Dyball as the miller there. Edward’s father Thomas DYBALL (1831-1909) had inherited land from his father in 1883 and by 1891 his son Edward was listed as being a miller. So, it seems the mill was been built by Thomas DYBALL, for or with his son Edward in mind, sometime between 1884 and 1891.
O. S. Map 1946. Courtesy of NLS map images
By the time the steam mill was built, there had already been three windmills in Martham. The problem with windmills is that they need wind to operate and they were very vulnerable to fire caused by flour dust exploding or high winds causing the brakes to overheat when trying to stop the sails turning excessively fast. On the other hand, steam mills can be operated at any time without the need for wind as they only need fuel which can be wood, coal or even oil.
The brick and tile steam mill at Back Lane was set over three floors and was what is known as a feed mill which concentrated on providing feed for animals rather than flour for human use. Feed milling is the process of grinding and processing raw ingredients into premixes, supplements and concentrates for animal consumption made from crops like maize, oats, barley, wheat middlings(1), beans and peas. The feed milling process can be divided into stages of milling that include raw material handling, grinding, mixing and pelleting.
Inspection of the building shows former bricked-up lofts on the north and west sides that would have had a pully beam above that assisted the handling of raw materials by winching them up to the top floor. They were then fed to the floor below where the hammer mill machined, ground and crushed the raw materials. The hammer mill was used to reduce the size of the original raw material by impact. It consists of a series of hammers mounted on a central shaft inside a rigid metal case. The material to be milled was struck by these hammers, which rotated at high speed inside the chamber. There were normally four stages to this process:
- Feeding: Material is fed into the hammer mill through a feed hopper from above.
- Grinding: The rotating shaft or drum spins at high speed, causing the hammers to swing out and impact the material.
- Crushing: The hammers strike the material, breaking it into smaller pieces. The size of the final product was determined by the size of the openings in the screen covering the drum.
- Discharge: Once the material was small enough to pass through the screen, it left the hammer mill and was passed to the floor below to be milled.
The main set of machinery made use of steam-driven rollers that could be set at a variety of gaps to mill the product using compression between the cylindrical rollers or against a plate. The cylindrical rollers were mounted horizontally and rotated by a steam driven engine. Sometimes a system of pulleys was used to allow easy rotation of the rollers. The rollers could rotate at different speeds and the feed or grain would break down as it moved through them, thus rolling mills could be used to produce different particle sizes as desired. Setting the correct gaps between the rollers was a skilled job. This process was efficient for reducing the size of various materials depending on their end use. Sub-parts of the system would have included dressing machinery, sifters and screeners to remove dirt. Once processed the feed would have been passed to the ground floor via shoots and fed into sacks.
The mill site also had outbuildings for coal storage and on the north side were cart storage barns that may also have been used by a blacksmith. The railway had opened in Martham in 1878 bringing with it a ready supply of coal and Lown’s the coal merchant operated from Hall Road only a few hundred yards away from the steam mill. The water table in Martham is high so a ready supply of water could be pumped up using a pump house to the rear of the building.
Over many years the mill served local farmers and probably none more so than George Knights of White Street. There is an extraordinary record at the Norfolk Records Office (ref ACC 2021/105) that contains a box of invoices that George kept from about 1913 to the 1950s relating to his farm business. The hoard includes many invoices submitted by both Edward and Thomas Dyball for services rendered that gives an interesting insight into what a miller did and their relationship with a village farmer. Examples of a small number of the bills are shown at the foot of this page and as you can see they feature the supply of animal feed. They also show the name of the company operated as “E. A. Dyball, Exors” after 1933.
The Millers
The Steam Mill was owned by the DYBALL family for about 75 years. Thomas DYBALL probably had it built between 1884 & 1891 for his son Edward Arthur DYBALL (1867-1933). He, in turn, was followed by his son Thomas Arthur DYBALL (1899-1961). You can read more about each of them by clicking on their names. The following family tree shows their lineage.
Edward came from a large family and had 13 siblings. He grew up in modest surroundings with his parents at Linford’s Yard in White Street. His father was Thomas DYBALL (1831-1909) and his mother was Maria, nee KERRISON (1835-1909). His father had worked with his father, Humphrey, but by 1901 had become a farmer at Martham in his own right. The family had been steeped in farming for many years and Edward’s grandfather was Humphrey DYBALL (1795-1883) who farmed 40 to 50 acres in Martham and lived across the road from the traditional windmills at the predecessor house of what is now called Mill Farm House, Hemsby Road. Humphrey is best known for keeping a farming diary which he did for twenty-five years from 1853 to 1878. You can read more about him by clicking on his name.
Being a miller was not a full-time job and census returns tell us that Edward was also a farmer and a corn and flour merchant. The 1921 census says he was a miller & poultry & pig food maker which is consistent with feed milling. When Edward was 27, he married Rachel Louisa DYE on 18th July 1894 at St Mary the Virgin, Martham and they lived at Gables Farm in Hemsby Road near The Green. Edward & Rachel had five children one of which was their son Thomas Arthur DYBALL (1899-1961). When Edward died in 1933 his Will stated that the steam mill should be managed by his executors for the financial benefit of his wife Rachel for the natural term of her life and that his son, Thomas, should be the paid manager (if he wanted to be). This wish was complied with and so the mill traded under the name of ‘E. A. Dyball, Exors’ until Rachel died on 23rd November 1953 after which Thomas took up the option, under the terms of his father’s Will, to purchase the mill and run the business in his own name. This he did until he died on 13th March 1961.
Post-1961
After Thomas Dyball died in 1961 the mill passed into the hands of Wm. Bracey & Co. of Martham that had wide-ranging farming interests including a large herd of cattle, so it made sense to produce their own feed and sell any surplus. During their time at the mill part of it was used as a grinding mill and other parts as a store for corn. Business declined however as more competitive imports became available and the building began to decay.
By about 1976 most of the mill working machinery had been removed and the mill saw a new use when master joiners Russel Smith & Roger Sales leased the building from Bracey & Co and used it as a base for their Smith & Sales joinery, kitchen and cabinet-making business. They used the ground floor as a small shop selling DIY items to the general public and the first and second floors as machine shops. They gave up their lease and left the building in about 2004/05 and moved to the former Harriss’s yard in White Street before selling up and retiring in 2009.
The days of milling at the building were long since gone. Paul Dickinson bought the building and used it as an HQ for his computer technology business. Paul sold the cart sheds on the north side of the site that were converted into four dwellings by local man Steve Ashton. In July 2007 Paul obtained planning permission to convert the main building into seven flats and maisonettes. These are now occupied giving the building a completely new lease of life.
(1) Wheat middlings (also known as millfeed, wheat mill run, or wheat midds) are the product of the wheat milling process that is not flour. It is a good source of protein, fiber, phosphorus and other nutrients, that are useful fodder for livestock and pets.
The following are examples of invoices and receipts issued by Edward Arthur Dyball and his son Thomas Arthur Dyball from 1913 to 1953. Click on any photo to enlarge it and from there you can scroll through all of them. Note that after 1933 the business was operated under the name ‘E.A. Dyball, Exors’.
