Norfolk 1847: No Milling Outside Your Day — 7 Villages, 11 Windmills

Описание: The Norfolk Villages That Shared Windmills on Rotation Schedules
In 1847, Norfolk miller William Catchpole faced an impossible choice: break a 124-year-old windmill rotation system or watch his village's harvest spoil. This is the true story of how seven English villages shared eleven windmills through a revolutionary scheduling system that lasted nearly two centuries.
Discover the Broads Milling Compact of 1723—a legal agreement that governed grain production across Norfolk through strict rotation schedules. When Stalham and Hickling parishes nearly went to war over windmill access in 1720, magistrates created something unprecedented: shared infrastructure managed through community cooperation rather than market competition.
This documentary explores:
✓ The 1847 crisis that nearly destroyed the rotation system
✓ How windmill scheduling worked across seven parishes
✓ Why Norfolk rejected steam mills when the rest of England embraced them
✓ The economics of shared agricultural infrastructure
✓ William Catchpole's decision that saved the compact
✓ Historical windmill engineering and operation
✓ Common-pool resource management in 18th-19th century England
The Norfolk windmill rotation system represents one of history's most successful experiments in cooperative resource management. For 168 years, communities prioritized certainty over efficiency, proving that rigid schedules sometimes work better than market chaos.
Five of the original eleven mills still stand today, including Sutton Mill—fully restored and operational as a living museum of agricultural history.
Real agricultural history. Real community ingenuity. Real stories from the Norfolk Broads.
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📌 Related Topics: windmill history, agricultural systems, Norfolk Broads, community cooperation, 18th century England, industrial revolution, common-pool resources, British local history, traditional farming, cooperative economics
📍 Filming Location: Norfolk, England, UK
🏛️ Historical Source: Norfolk Record Office, Broads Milling Compact (1723)

#WindmillHistory #NorfolkHistory #BritishHistory #AgriculturalHistory #LocalSystemsUK #CommunityCooperation #IndustrialHistory #RuralEngland #HistoricalDocumentary #UKHistory #ForgottenStories #EnglishHeritage #NorfolkBroads

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