River Mun - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

River Mun

Geography
Origin:	Northrepps, Norfolk
Grid reference:
Terminates:	In to the North Sea at Mundesley, Norfolk
Grid reference:
Length:	Unknown
fall:	Unknown
Catchment Area:	Unknown
Tributaries:	Unknown
Water Mills:	Two Watermills, Gimingham and Mundesley

The River Mun or Mundesley Beck is a river in the north of the county of Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The source of the river can be found in the Parish of Northrepps. The river finally runs into the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

in the village of Mundesley

Mundesley

Mundesley is a coastal village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is 20.3 miles north-north east of Norwich, 7.3 miles south east of Cromer and 136 miles north east of London. The village lies 5.6 miles north-north east of the town of North Walsham. The nearest...

The source

The source of the River Mun can be found next to Craft Lane, close to Furyhill plantation between Northrepps

Northrepps

Northrepps is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is southeast of Cromer, north of Norwich and north of London. The village lies west of the A149 which runs between Kings Lynn and Great Yarmouth. The nearest railway station is at Cromer for the Bittern...

and the hamlet of Frogshall

Frogshall

Frogshall is a small hamlet within the civil parish of Northrepps in the English county of Norfolk . The hamlet is southeast of Cromer, north of Norwich and north of London. Craft Lane runs through the hamlet between Northrepps and Southrepps. The nearest railway station is at Gunton on the...

. It runs in a south easterly direction through a wooded valley and passes under Craft Lane close to Frogshall Farm House. From here it runs through woodland for a short distance and into a large pool called Little Broad. From Little Broad, still in woodland, the river falls over a weir and into some marshy woodland known as Osier Carr. Deep in the heart of Osier Carr
Freshwater mussels

Freshwater pearl mussel

The freshwater pearl mussel, scientific name Margaritifera margaritifera, is an endangered species of freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusc in the family Margaritiferidae....

(Bivalvia: Unionidae) can be found. The mussels are filter feeders, removing phytoplankton and other suspended particulate matter from the river. This removal of suspended matter from the water is often considered ecologically desirable, as it reduces phytoplankton blooms and in the treatment of drinking water. The river now passes under another lane from Sidestrand

Sidestrand

Sidestrand is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is North of Norwich, South East of Cromer and north-east of London.The nearest railway station is at North Walsham for the Bittern Line which runs between Cromer and Norwich...

. From here the river feeds a system of ponds and sluices in an area known as the Grove. Many drains feed into the river here. The river now turns almost south and passes under another lane called Cromer

Cromer

Cromer is a coastal town and civil parish in north Norfolk, England. The local government authority is North Norfolk District Council, whose headquarters is in Holt Road in the town. The town is situated 23 miles north of the county town, Norwich, and is 4 miles east of Sheringham...

Road and crosses countryside towards Ash Tree Farm and Ash Plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

. The river now widens slightly and begins to cross open countryside, slowly turning south east again. Along this section the Mun runs adjacent to several small reservoirs and ponds and drains.

Gimingham watermill

At Gimingham

Gimingham

Gimingham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is north of North Walsham and east of Cromer. It is north of the city of Norwich. Nearby road communications with Gimingham are the A140 to Norwich, the A148 and A149 to King's Lynn, and the A149 into the...

the river flows into a series of Mill Ponds. These ponds fed Gimingham watermill (Nat Grid Ref TG28663690) which is the first of two mills that stood on the river. The Mill dam once held back a 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) broad fed by the River. The water ran under the Mill street to reach the waterwheel, which was probably originally overshot.
There has been a mill at this point since the time of the Domesday book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

. The last mill to work here was built of local brick and flint brought in from local beaches. The original waterwheel went fairly early on, first being supplemented by steam and then replaced by a turbine

Turbine

A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work.The simplest turbines have one moving part, a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades, or the blades react to the flow, so that they move and...

with half twist drive in 1912 and then later by diesel engine

Diesel engine

A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...

s, although water was still used for cooling them. The mill carried on working until 30 November 1976, using its diesel power to mill animal feedstuffs. The watermill was worked in conjunction with the nearby Gimingham postmill until 1877. The original heavy diesel oil engine has been carefully preserved and stands on Mill Street just below the old mill. Gimingham Mill Lake is a very popular fishing location. In the lake, pit and river, Bream, Carp

Carp

Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. The cypriniformes are traditionally grouped with the Characiformes, Siluriformes and Gymnotiformes to create the superorder Ostariophysi, since these groups have certain...

, Tench

Tench

The tench or doctor fish is a freshwater and brackish water fish of the cyprinid family found throughout Eurasia from Western Europe including the British Isles east into Asia as far as the Ob and Yenisei Rivers. It is also found in Lake Baikal...

and Roach can be caught.
From Gimingham the river cross more open farm land now heading east, passing on its left Mundesley

Mundesley

Hospital which was refurbished in 1997 and is now the Diana Princess of Wales Treatment Centre for Drug

Drug

A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.In pharmacology, a...

and Alcohol

Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....

Problems. Where the road leading up to the hospital crosses the River Mun, the Environment Agency has a Water Resource Management gauging station. From here the river begins to skirt the southern side of the coastal village of Mundesley

Mundesley

Mun valley and Mundesley golf course

The valley here is part of Mundesley Golf Club. The golf club was established in 1901, and was designed with the help of one of the sport’s legends, 6-times Open winner Harry Vardon

Harry Vardon

Harry Vardon was a Jersey professional golfer and member of the fabled Great Triumvirate of the sport in his day, along with John Henry Taylor and James Braid. He won The Open Championship a record six times and also won the U.S. Open.-Biography:Vardon was born in Grouville, Jersey, Channel Islands...

(1870–1937), built on the rolling hillside of the River Mun valley. Today its nine holes, with 18 tees, offer a satisfying challenge to players of all abilities. Harry Vardon’s association with Mundesley Golf Club spanned many years, from consultation, in 1900 to his misfortune to contract tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

in 1903, and it was to Mundesley’s sanatorium

Sanatorium

A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...

that he went for treatment. While recuperating in 1904, still at the sanatorium, he ventured along the lane which bisects the course to enjoy a round of golf. Here he experienced his only career hole-in-one, on what is now the sixth, a feat which no doubt contributed to the success of his convalescence.
From the golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

course the river travels a short distance due east and enters the village under Trunch

Trunch

Trunch is a village and parish in Norfolk, England, situated three miles north of North Walsham and two miles from the coast at Mundesley. At the Census 2001 the village had a population of 805, and 388 households. The parish covers an area of ....

Road close to its junction with High Street and Heath Road. Just past Trunch Road the river falls over another weir

Weir

A weir is a small overflow dam used to alter the flow characteristics of a river or stream. In most cases weirs take the form of a barrier across the river that causes water to pool behind the structure , but allows water to flow over the top...

before turning north into the eastern side of the village.

Mundesley Watermill

The river now fills another mill pond where once the second mill on the river worked. Mundesley watermill was built c.1723 and consisted of two brick floors supporting a weather boarded upper floor and roof space under a Norfolk pantiled roof. Seen from the roadside, Mundesley Mill has five floors but if you took the public pathway round to the back, only two would have been visible. This is because the mill pool lying behind was level with the third floor. The builders set the mill deep into a high bank, over which the water would have fallen freely in the old days before findings its way to the beach, although it is quite possible the water was diverted to this point for the purpose of driving the mill. Unusually the mill had an overshot waterwheel. The only way to provide a sufficient head of water was to dam

Dam

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...

the river to form the mill pond we see today which is some considerable height above the road. When the mill was working, 8 million gallons of water flowed through per day. When the mill was worked by the Larter family in the 1920s, the deeds stated that anyone interfering with the river had to pay dues to the millers. The Larter family also used the mill to generate electricity, which also supplied power to some of the surrounding properties including a Bell's grocery shop, Larter & Rudran's bicycle garage and a property at The Dell. The mill burnt down in November 1956. Some of the cog wheels were still visible in their mountings within the shell of the building in 1959. The remains of the building were finally pulled down in the summer of 1965. The waterwheel was large with a diameter of 26 feet (7.9 m) and the owner of the Mill House decided to enclose the wheel behind a grill and to leave it as a showpiece. The wooden spokes and the rim can still be seen, and some of the metal scoops and some wooden cogs have been replaced. For many years it still turned whenever enough water was available. The river's water flowed over the wheel and then under the road and into the North sea through a pipe.

The source

Gimingham watermill

Mun valley and Mundesley golf course

Mundesley Watermill

See also