Raymond Sheppard and wooden buildings

Windmills in Norfolk (Raymond Sheppard)

On our journey, outlined in the previous three blog posts, we wondered whether it would possible to identify the building drawn below

"Old wooden building in the woods"

Stop for a moment and look at it and say what you think it might be. Firstly it is in woods, secondly there are people walking by and on a path that's well-trodden, with a sign on the ground. The building itself appears like a tiled barn on the left and has a tower. The tower appears shingled, or possibly lead-lined. and there are only two 'windows' visible due to the wisteria or ivy growth. The tower looks to be hexagonal and the connecting part has a doorway.

What sort of building would have a tower/turret with window slots? And where could it be? I decided to firstly look at Google Maps for woods in the same area as the round churches, and there was Waveney Forest at St. Olaves. I was drawn to the space in the woods that had a track leading to it and imagine my surprise when I see that it's a round tower of some sort.

On our holiday we walked into the woods on a public way and found a residence called "The Round House". The viewpoint and location were so similar, as the picture above, that we felt it could be a new building on that site, matching the contours but built in brick. (For privacy reasons I am not published a photo I took). I also found this on the Norfolk heritage site, as I trawled the Internet. If anyone knows any more I'd be grateful to hear from them. Please email me here - You'll need to type the address in your email:

Lastly on our walk to this spot we passed a very interesting windmill.

River Waveney and St. Olave's Mill

St. Olave's Mill

St. Olave's Mill

St. Olave's Mill

The River Waveney is part of the Norfolk Broads and the mill sits alongside. Interestingly Christine Sheppard shared some of her father's sketches of 'draining mills' in the Norfolk area and it appears this is one.

Drainage Mill

Draining Mill at Herringfleet

Draining Mill at Herringfleet

Draining Mill on the marshes

The BBC tells me that these are "smock mills" introduced by the Dutch and contrary to opinion did not grind flour but were for drainage of the rivers.

That's the end of our Norfolk Broads Round Tower Church Adventure.