The Village Of Antingham

The county of Norfolk in the United Kingdom is the home to a variety of small towns and villages.  Antingham is one of the smaller villages boasting a population of around 287 people in this civil parish.  It only has a total area of 6.12 square kilometres and it is located six miles south of Cromer and three miles north of North Walsham.
One of the most interesting facts about Antingham is that it was the location of two watermills within a few hundred yards of each other that were located off a cut from the Ant River.  They were part of the North Walsham & Dilham Canal and were owned by the same person.  What made these two mills interesting was they were bone mills.  Butchers, slaughterhouses, knackers’ yards, and travelling traders would bring in bones that they had collected and give or trade them to the bone yard for grinding.  The local rag and bone man also brought his wares to these mills.  Phosphates from the local ports that was used for ballast on ships was also brought to the mills.   The powdered substance was then shipped from the two mills via the canal or rail and used to make fertilizer.
The two mills were powered by water in the early days of their production, but by the late 1800’s/early 1900’s, a Crossley gas engine that was run by anthracite and coke turned the wheels that ground the bones.  Both mills ceased operation somewhere between 1935 and 1936, and they were demolished in 1958.