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Broads wind pump gets first new sails in a century

Andrew Turner
BBC News, Norfolk
Reporting fromHaddiscoe Island
Andrew Turner/BBC Toft Monks Wind Pump is a brick tower, with a white cap and new sails. Near the tower is a scaffold and a yellow cherry picker. The foreground features reedbeds, with trees on either side, and the sky blue with white cloud.Andrew Turner/BBC
Adam Singer A man in a cherry picker works on one of the stocks of the Toft Monks Wind Pump, which features a white weather boarded cap, with tail fan structure to the right of the image.Adam Singer
Toft Monks Wind Pump has been fitted with new sails for what is thought to be the first time in 100 years
Millwrights fitted new stocks to the mill, which received a new cap in 2024

A Norfolk Broads wind pump has been fitted with a new set of sails for the first time in a century.

Toft Monks Wind Pump on Haddiscoe Island near Great Yarmouth was last used in the 1930s when it was superseded by steam, then electric pumps, to drain the marshes.

The tower and much of its mechanism had been preserved by the previous owner but was sold in 2022 after being featured in a national newspaper as one of the UK's top 50 restoration projects.

Owner Adam Singer said: "We got drunk, came here, looked at it, had two more cognacs and by the end of the afternoon, bought it.

"Woke up next morning with a terrible hangover wondering how on earth we were going to fund it, but we've managed.

"The previous owner did a fantastic job ensuring the building didn't decay beyond repair."

Andrew Turner/BBC Adam Singer is wearing a checked shirt and wax jacket, and sun glasses. He has white hair swept over to the right. He is standing near the Toft Monks Wind Pump, with reeds and trees nearby, and the pump bearing its sails.Andrew Turner/BBC
Owner Adam Singer says he and his wife bought the derelict pump having got drunk after viewing it in 2022

Planning permission has been granted for a small dwelling, as well as the restoration of the wind pump and the rebuilding of a steam engine house, to which he intends to allow public access.

Asked about the budget, he said: "You're going to have to ask my kids; it's their inheritance I'm spending. I'm having fun!"

Andrew Turner/BBC Paul Kemp standing inside the cap of the wind pump, wearing a pink tee shirt and wax hat. He has a greying beard and has one arm resting on the brickwork. Andrew Turner/BBC
Paul Kemp says while many of the ironwork fittings were preserved, some new components had to be made from scratch

Essex-based millwright Paul Kemp was responsible for restoring and remaking much of the ironwork.

He said: "There's been an awful lot of effort gone into just the ironwork on this job, let alone the timber-work.

"I've been involved with this for about two years now before the original cap was removed, and it's amazing we've got to this stage in an 18-month period, going from a very derelict mill to something that's almost back in working condition again."

Andrew Turner/BBC Millwright James Forsyth is wearing a black tee shirt, a black wristwatch, a high visibility waistcoat and a white hard hat. He has a close cropped goatee beard, and is sitting in the cap of the wind pump next to the oak brake wheel, his arm rested on the iron drive shaft.Andrew Turner/BBC
James Forsyth of Cambridgeshire and Norfolk Millwrights

James Forsyth, of Cambridgeshire and Norfolk Millwrights, said: "A lot of these are derelict now, unfortunately, so to bring one of these back to life after 100 years - the history of this place, is phenomenal.

"There's a few more pieces to finish it, but very soon it'll be turning to wind and doing what it should be doing. It will be a real sight to behold."

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