Pin Mill

Pin Mill
The shoreline at Pin Mill, Chelmondiston
Pin Mill
Pin Mill shown 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
EU Parliament	East of England

Pin Mill is a hamlet on the south bank of the tidal River Orwell, located on the outskirts of the village of Chelmondiston on the Shotley peninsula, south Suffolk. It lies within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is a designated Conservation Area. Pin Mill is now generally known for the historic Butt & 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. But neither of these activities are known to have taken place at Pin Mill, so the origin of the name remains uncertain.

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.^[1]

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 Landing craft tanks used in the invasion of Normandy in 1944.

Approximately 38 houseboats are occupied year round along the foreshore to the east of the Butt and Oyster pub, an alternative lifestyle which should lend a quaint charm to the settlement. Sadly all that exists is a shanty town lying on an open sewer. Since 2004 Babergh has been working with the houseboat owners, Chelmondiston Parish Council and other groups to grant planning permission to the houseboats. However such action is contrary to law as only the Ipswich Port Authority can give permission for any houseboat to berth in the River Orwell. Only the Ipswich Port Authority has the right to grant permission for any vessel or water craft to be in or on the River Orwell and only that authority can give permission to lay any mooring on the river bed Babergh DC, have no power in law to make an unlawful act lawful and all involvement of the Council in any management of the river is unlawful ^[2] There have also been recent improvements in the sailing infrastructure, and responsibility for the Hard at Pin Mill has been handed over to a new 'community interest' company.^[3]Pin Mill is a tourist spot which attracts visitors from all over the world yet lying within the hamlet is one of the worst eyesores on the east coast namely a squalid, unattractive, dirty, unhygienic and illegal site for house boats. The area is at best described as a shanty town. Few of the residences can really be described as boats and the area has the appearance of a slum littered with rotting and rusty hulks and unsavoury debris. Worse still is the fact that none of the houseboats have sewage disposal provision other than dumping raw sewage and black water onto the mud on a daily basis. This has resulted in the creation of an open sewer which at low tide on a warm day gives off a revolting stench. Because the water even at high tide is shallow and there is little tidal movement of water between each boat the mud is little more than rotting sewage.

Immediately downriver of the houseboats is an area of the foreshore which in polite terms is a graveyard for old vessels. In fact it is nothing more than an uncontrolled dumping ground for marine fly tippers. It looks and is no more than a large rubbish tip adjacent to National Trust property. The law relating to the control of the River Orwell is set out in the HTML version of the judgement in the appeal of Ipswich Borough Council v Moore & Duke 2001

The Ipswich Dock Act 1950: Section 12 deals with moorings, Sec 13 houseboats Sec 14 wrecks and abandoned vessels. Section 12 of the 1950 Act must be read in conjunction with sections 13 and 14 of that Act. Section 13(2) provides that: "It shall not be lawful without the written consent of the Commission to moor, place, keep or maintain in the port any houseboat, whether or not the same shall have been so placed or moored before the passing of this Act." 27. "Houseboat", in that context, means any vessel (whether or not used or intended to be used for human habitation) other than a ship registered under the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 or any boat or vessel bona fide used for navigation - see section 13(1) of the 1950 Act. Section 13(2)(b) requires that, before giving consent, the Commission shall give notice to the Borough and to the County Council and shall take any representations which they may make into account. Section 13(4)(a) gives the Commission power to remove or demolish any houseboat in respect of which it has given a notice to remove which has not been complied with. Section 14(1) of the Act provides that The Ipswich Dock Byelaws are available on the internet

Leisure activities and places of interest

Pin Mill Hard and the Grindle – geograph.org.uk – 720586

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. A feature film about sailing, "Ha'penny Breeze," was filmed here in 1950, featuring the Welsh actress Gwyneth Vaughan. There is a boatyard, and the Pin Mill Sailing Club has hosted an annual Barge Match since 1962.^[4] 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.^[5] Sadly due to the influx of houseboats and Dutch barges let out to holiday makers and week enders there is a serious risk health risk to all those using the waters of pin Mill for leisure activities especially to the many children who in hot weather play , paddle and swim in the water which is fouled daily by over 40 vessels (houseboats and holiday lets)all dumping raw sewage and foul water onto the Pin Mill foreshore. As a result the area on a hot day carries the stench of a sewage works.

The Butt and Oyster is a traditional 17th century public house that serves real ale. ^[6] It is a listed building with bay windows in the bar and restaurant that offer panoramic views of the Orwell estuary.^[7]

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.^[8] Pin Mill can be reached at the end of a lane half a mile from the centre of Chelmondiston, which is serviced by the B1456 Ipswich-Shotley road. There is a public car park near the foreshore, and also limited customer parking in the Butt and Oyster pub.

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 the 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.^[9]
The film "Ha'penny Breeze" was made in Pin Mill in 1950, featuring a yacht that was based in the area.^[10]

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 trilogy of children's books by Julia Jones.

References

↑ "The East Coast". Richard Platt. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
↑ "Approval for Pin Mill Houseboat Hopefully the First of Many". Babergh District Council. 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.
↑ "Welcome to pinmillhard.info". Pin Mill Bay Management Company. 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. 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.

External links

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