Pin Mill - Misplaced Pages

This article is about the hamlet in England. For the milling device, see pin mill. For the house in Wales, see The Pin Mill. Human settlement in England

Pin Mill
The shoreline at Pin Mill, Chelmondiston
Pin MillLocation within Suffolk
OS grid reference	TM2052537997
District	Babergh
Shire county	Suffolk
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Ipswich
Postcode district	IP9
Dialling code	01473
List of places UK England Suffolk 51°59′46″N 1°12′46″E / 51.996131°N 1.212728°E / 51.996131; 1.212728

Pin Mill is a hamlet on the south bank of the tidal River Orwell, on the outskirts of the village of Chelmondiston, on the Shotley peninsula in southern Suffolk. It lies within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is a designated Conservation Area. It is now generally known for the historic Butt and Oyster public house, and for sailing.

History

The expression "pin mill" means a pin factory, and also a word for a wheel with projecting pins used in leather production. Neither of these activities are known to have taken place at Pin Mill.

Pin Mill was once a busy landing point for ship-borne cargo, a centre for the repair of Thames sailing barges and home to many small industries such as sail making, a maltings (now a workshop) and a brickyard. The east coast has a long history of smuggling, in which Pin Mill and the Butt and Oyster pub allegedly played key parts.

During World War II Pin Mill was home to Royal Navy Motor Launches and to a degaussing vessel created from a herring drifter. Pin Mill and Woolverstone were home ports to many tank landing craft used in the invasion of Normandy in 1944.

There were later improvements in the sailing infrastructure, and responsibility for the Hard at Pin Mill was handed over to a new 'community interest' company.

Leisure activities and places of interest

Pin Mill has often been the subject of painting and photography, and is a popular yacht and dinghy sailing destination. During WWII many yachts were placed for storage west of the hamlet in what were then called 'the saltings,' awaiting the cessation of hostilities. The moorings in the river were home to the Royal Harwich One Design Class boats for many years in the 1940s. There are two boatyards, and the Pin Mill Sailing Club has hosted an annual Barge Match since 1962. The Grindle is a small stream that flows alongside Pin Mill Common down to the Pin Mill Hard on the foreshore. It is used by dinghies to ferry sailors ashore.

The Butt and Oyster is a traditional 17th-century public house that serves real ale. It is a listed building with bay windows in the bar and restaurant that offer panoramic views of the Orwell estuary.

Pin Mill lies along the Stour and Orwell walk. There many signposted walks in the immediate area, including through the Cliff Plantation forest owned by the National Trust.

In popular culture

The 1933 novel Ordinary Families by E. Arnot Robertson is the story of a young girl growing up with her family in Pin Mill.
In Arthur Ransome's 1937 novel for children We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea, the young adventurers stay at the real-life Alma Cottage, situated just by the Butt and Oyster pub. Pin Mill also features in Ransome's next book, Secret Water. Ransome had his own boats built at Harry King's boatyard in Pin Mill and had kept his yacht Selina King at the Pin Mill anchorage in 1937–39, although he himself lived for some time at Levington on the opposite side of the Orwell. In 1911 he had declined an offer to go sailing with the bibliographer Walter Ledger, as he was told by Oscar Wilde's friend Robbie Ross that Ledger had episodes of homicidal mania. Later though he said he "always regretted that I did not sail with him, for he kept his Blue Bird at Pin Mill, and, if I had gone, I should have known that charming anchorage twenty years earlier".
The film Ha'penny Breeze was made in Pin Mill in 1950, featuring a yacht that was based in the area.
The Butt and Oyster pub was used as a filming location in an episode of the British TV series Lovejoy in 1993.
Pin Mill is a setting in the Strong Winds series of children's books by Julia Jones.

References

"The East Coast". Richard Platt. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
"Celebration Ceremony As Pin Mill is Restored". Babergh District Council. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
"Pin Mill Barge Match History". Pin Mill Sailing Club. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
"Pin Mill Butt & Oyster". Suffolk CAMRA. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
"The Butt and Oyster Public House, Chelmondiston". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
"Chelmondiston and Pin Mill Walk". East Anglian Daily Times. Archived from the original on 23 April 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome p142 (1976, Jonathan Cape, London) ISBN 0-224-01245-2
"Ha'penny Breeze". IMDB. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
Renee Waite, Potted History of Pin Mill, The Pin Mill Society, archived from the original on 30 May 2014, retrieved 11 October 2016

External links

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Towns	Sudbury Hadleigh
Civil parishes (current)	Acton Aldham Alpheton Arwarton Assington Belstead Bentley Bildeston Boxford Boxted Brantham Brent Eleigh Brettenham Bures St Mary Burstall Capel St Mary Chattisham Chelmondiston Chelsworth Chilton Cockfield Copdock and Washbrook East Bergholt Edwardstone Elmsett Freston Glemsford Great Cornard Great Waldingfield Groton Hadleigh (town) Harkstead Hartest Higham Hintlesham Hitcham Holbrook Holton St Mary Kersey Kettlebaston Lavenham Lawshall Layham Leavenheath Lindsey Little Cornard Little Waldingfield Long Melford Milden Monks Eleigh Nayland-with-Wissington Nedging-with-Naughton Newton Pinewood Polstead Preston St Mary Raydon Semer Shelley Shimpling Shotley Somerton Sproughton Stanstead Stoke-by-Nayland Stratford St. Mary Stutton Sudbury (town) Tattingstone Thorpe Morieux Wattisham Wenham Magna Wenham Parva Whatfield Wherstead Woolverstone
Civil parishes (former)	Ballingdon Copdock Hadleigh Hamlet Naughton Nayland Nedging Sudbury All Saints Sudbury St Bartholomew Sudbury St Gregory Sudbury St Peter Washbrook Wissington
Other settlements	Ash Street Brundon Bures Bury Road Drakestone Green Erwarton Fenstead End Flatford Hagmore Green Hanningfield Green Harrow Green Hart's Green Hibb's Green Lambs Lane Lawshall Green Little Wenham Lower Layham Nedging Tye Oldhall Green Pin Mill Rooksey Green Shotley Gate The Street Thorington Street Upper Layham Windsor Green Withermarsh Green
Buildings	Abbas Hall Bridge Cottage St Mary's Church, Chilton Coldham Cottage Flatford Mill Freston Tower Gainsborough's House Giffords Hall Kentwell Hall Kersey Priory St Peter and St Paul's Church, Lavenham Lavenham Guildhall Lavenham Priory Lavenham Wool Hall All Saints' Church, Lawshall Lawshall Hall St James' Chapel, Lindsey All Saints Church, Little Wenham Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford Melford Hall Milden Castle All Saints Church, Newton Green Smallbridge Hall St Mary's Church, Stoke-by-Nayland St Gregory's Church, Sudbury St Peter's Church, Sudbury Tattingstone Wonder Thorington Hall St Mary's Church, Washbrook Wattisham Strict Baptist Chapel Willy Lott's Cottage Woolverstone Hall

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