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Please note the Mill is now operating its Summer schedule where it is open on Thursday mornings between 10.00 and 12.30 and Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holidays between 1.30 and 4.30.

Refreshments are available on Thursday from 10.00.

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Pakenham Water Mill HAS BEEN voted one of the best landmark sites in Britain by BBC Countryfile Magazine!

This is the oldest surviving flour mill in Suffolk, where once there were many. There has been a watermill in Pakenham for almost a thousand years, and for all that time millers on this site have been using the simple technology of water power to produce stone-ground wholemeal flour for local people. Owned today by Historic Suffolk, a team of dedicated volunteers continues this long tradition.

Streams coming from parishes to the west of Pakenham merge and are channelled across Pakenham Fen to feed into the beautiful millpond. This water provides the power to turn the mill’s great iron waterwheel and drive the millstones.

Flour milling goes on all the year round. We are open to visitors during the summer months. Inside the mill all the machinery is visible (and safely guarded) and a friendly guide will show you round and explain how it all works. If you come on a Thursday morning between about 10.00 and 11.30 you are likely to see the mill actually working and the flour being produced and bagged up for sale. You should also take a look at the old kitchens in the Miller’s House displayed as they were in the past.

Outside you will find the garden at the back of the mill where you can just sit and enjoy the tranquil setting by the millpond or stroll along the circular walk past a recently planted orchard of traditional fruit trees and around the pond coming back on the other bank, where there is a wildlife area particularly attractive to children who like to hunt for frogs, toads, slow worms and insects.

Best of all there is our delightful tearoom where you can enjoy tea, coffee and home-made scones and cakes, or a ‘miller’s lunch’ (and we are licensed too). Why not take these out to enjoy in the garden?

Photographs kindly supplied by: John and Lisa Whitehead, Joe Bridge, John Wilkin, John Lord, Phil and Sheila Dawes, Sandy Jackson and David Eddershaw

ENVIRONMENTAL STATEMENT FOR PAKENHAM WATER MILL.

Pakenham Water Mill is one of the oldest examples of renewable energy use, for a thousand years the energy potential of moving water has been harnessed to produce wholemeal flour.  It simply uses the flow of water from the mill pond to the stream to turn the breast shot waterwheel which then turns the millstones to grind flour.  No electricity is used in this process, there is no waste generated and no water is abstracted along the way.

Not only is Pakenham Water Mill such a good example of clean energy, as a charity we are committed to encouraging all wildlife to thrive in and around the site.  We have a dedicated wildlife area attracting butterflies, insects, small mammals and reptiles and we encourage swifts, house martins and other birds to nest in the eaves and in specially erected bird boxes.

By its very nature the Water Mill has always moved in harmony with its natural surroundings, and now, in the 21st century, that situation continues under the careful management of Trustees and volunteers who ensure that all steps are taken to protect the natural assets of the Mill and its estate and regular monitoring takes place.

A copy of the Trust’s Environmental policy is available upon request.