Bircham Windmill at Great Bircham King's Lynn Norfolk England
Bircham Windmill Norfolk is situated in Great Bircham near King's Lynn Norfolk England. It is a working windmill fully restored and used as a bakery. A great place to visit, and the food is home cooked.
Diss Norfolk in the 1940s
Wonderful 8mm colour cine film of the market town of Diss in Norfolk from the late 1940s. This was filmed by my grandfather and features his original home-made captions!
The first section is entitled Diss & it's picturesque surroundings and features footage shot at various locations throughout the town - Mere Street, Market Hill, The Dolphin House and Church, Mount Street, Fair Green and includes some great film of a bustling market day.
Mere Reflections has various shots of the town across the Mere from various points around its perimeter.
Shopping Week July 1949 is footage of that years carnival - was it known as shopping week back then? Great footage of the carnival queen and her assistants with the local dignitaries, the carnival float processions through Mere Street, the watching crowds and then children's fancy dress competition. Some of this was filmed at the Saracens Head Bowls Club - now a car park!
The final part of the film includes footage of the Lowes, Stuston Common and some fabulous shots of Scole Inn and its Old World Gardens .... the gardens are also now a car park!
This film is part of a collection of cine footage of Norfolk, shot by my grandfather Stanley Arthur Youngs between the 1930s and 1950s. Born and bred in South Norfolk and a baker by trade, my grandfather was also a keen amateur cine photographer with a passion for creating films of rural Norfolk life which he delighted in showing to people in a makeshift cinema in the bakehouse.
Thorpeness Holiday Village Suffolk
Thorpeness Holiday Village Suffolk
Heage Windmill - working flour mill
Built in 1797 and restored in 2002. Heage Windmill, a Grade II* listed building, is the only working, stone towered, multi-sailed windmill in England. Set in the Derbyshire countryside providing spectacular views towards the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.
Windmills of Suffolk: Pakenham Windmill
Pakenham Mill is a five storey tower mill built in 1831. Clement Goodrich was the miller in 1846, when he took on an apprentice. The mill came into the ownership of the Bryant family in 1885. A steam engine was used as auxiliary power. In 1947, the mill was nearly tail-winded, but the miller managed to turn the cap in time to avoid this happening. The mill was restored in 1950, with a new weatherbeam fitted by Amos Clarke, the Ipswich millwright. A second-hand stock from Thurston post mill was fitted at this time and a gallery constructed around the cap. The gallery was based on that at Wendover mill, Buckinghamshire. New sails were also fitted. Further restoration took place in 1961, aided by grants from Suffolk County Council, the Ministry of Works. The work was conditional on the Bryant family continuing to work the mill. The restoration work was carried out by R Thompson & Sons Ltd, millwrights of Alford, Lincolnshire. The copper covered cap was rebuilt and clad in aluminium for maintenance reasons. A new stock and two new sails were made, and the fantail rebuilt. The mill was struck by lightning in June 1971 resulting in a stock being split and a sail damaged. The sack chain saved the mill from being burnt down by giving a route for the lightning to earth. When the mill was repaired, a lightning conductor was added to the mill.
The most recent restoration of Pakenham windmill was completed in May 2000. The £60,000 cost of the work was 80% funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The work was carried out by Thompson's of Alford. Today, the mill is open to the public daily during working hours for individuals, and by appointment for parties. It is open on both Saturday and Sunday of National Mills Weekend from 14:00 to 17:30.
Myself and my sister have had a lifelong interest in tall and interesting buildings such as windmills, and aim to continue to go round many of the windmills in the region and other counties in England.
Filmed on my Sony Cybershot DSC-H55 digital camera on 24th July 2016.
The Windmill
I'd been randomly looking through my old stock photos from many moons ago when I stumbled upon a picture I had taken of a windmill in Warwickshire that I had discovered whilst driving around with a friend. The windmill in question was Chesterton Windmill - built in 1632 with theories that it may have also been used as a makeshift observatory by the owner - more on the history here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesterton_Windmill
Continuing my adventures in online searches, I then came across Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, an American poet who'd penned 'The Windmill'. I wanted to test my fairly new emotimo TB3 out in cold weather, for power consumption rather than temperature capabilities so I headed out on a three night / three day adventure in Warwickshire to create some sort of American / English collaboration kit test!
The shoot:
The nights were cold, very cold. The temperature only dropped to -2C but they don't place traditional windmills in sheltered places. The wind was horrific and felt more like -10. I'm used to working in the extremes and I was suitably dressed but taking your gloves off to do anything is painful. With the only place to hide being the subject I was shooting, I had to stick it out but my trusty flask of coffee got me through the 12hr nights!
Each shot took roughly 4hrs, some longer. My main struggle was light pollution - Chesterton is what you might call 'in the middle of nowhere' as far as neighbouring towns are concerned but a distant low-level cloud formation surrounding the area was still managing to reflect light from the nearby motorway and the distant towns and cities. It didn't help that two roads run alongside the field I was shooting in hence why you may see the occasional flash in the shots - that'll be the passing cars.
I very often get asked if I find timelapse boring. I can see why because technically, once you've pressed 'go' on the camera you've got a four hour wait just to get one shot. There are a few reasons why 'no is my answer':
1) I get to travel the world and see amazing sights for a living - sitting in an office staring at the same walls for 8hrs a day to me, is boring.
2) I use the time to catch up on emails, develop new rigs, think about life, read, watch films and phone the people I love.
3) I've seen more sunrises and sunsets than I can even keep track of and each one is very different - I'll never get bored of that!
4) It's my passion, my love and it never feels like work; I've basically found a way to get paid for my hobby.
As a camera test, the emotimo / dynamic perception combination worked out well on battery consumption - much better than expected given the climate. I'd previously taken it out to Ethiopia on a shoot and it fared well there as well (+45C and the finest dust I'd ever inhaled).
Credits:
Filming by my good self, obviously - chadchud.co.uk
Voice - Andrew Charles-Hilton
Music - 'State' Moby - mobygratis.com
And here's the original poem:
Behold! a giant am I!
Aloft here in my tower,
With my granite jaws I devour
The maize, and the wheat, and the rye,
And grind them into flour.
I look down over the farms;
In the fields of grain I see
The harvest that is to be,
And I fling to the air my arms,
For I know it is all for me.
I hear the sound of flails
Far off, from the threshing-floors
In barns, with their open doors,
And the wind, the wind in my sails,
Louder and louder roars.
I stand here in my place,
With my foot on the rock below,
And whichever way it may blow,
I meet it face to face,
As a brave man meets his foe.
And while we wrestle and strive,
My master, the miller, stands
And feeds me with his hands;
For he knows who makes him thrive,
Who makes him lord of lands.
On Sundays I take my rest;
Church-going bells begin
Their low, melodious din;
I cross my arms on my breast,
And all is peace within.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow