Photos

The Norfolk Broads is an artificial landscape. Left to it's own devices, this area of shallow river valleys and the flooded medieval peat diggings which are the Broads themselves would be swamp - fetid in summer and non-negotiable in winter - rather than the bucolic, if seasonally crowded, holiday destination that it is today.

It looks the way it does because from the 18th century the land was drained by a gradual proliferation of wind-powered drainage mills which lifted water into the rivers from a lattice of marsh dykes. By the early 19th century, over a hundred mills were working, although supplimentary steam pumps would shortly appear to be followed in the early 20th century by internal combustion engines. It was the subsequent spread of the National Grid which led to the present day regime of electric pumps.

This is Horsey Mill which as been restored but, these days, does not pump water. It was entirely rebuilt in 1912 and is now owned by The National Trust who acquired the Horsey Estate from the Buxton family in 1948. It sits overlooking Horsey Mere and the North-eastern extremity of the Norfolk Broads.

This picture was taken yesterday on a blustery, cloudy visit during a week long stay in Norfolk.

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