Horstead Mill

The River Bure runs past Horstead Mill like it has for centuries, and that's the whole point of being here. This is a proper working watermill, the sort of place that makes you understand why mills mattered before electricity showed up. You can see the millwheel doing its thing, watch how water power grinds grain - it's tactile history rather than the usual glass-case museum experience.

Walking around takes maybe an hour unless you get chatty with whoever's running the place that day. The building itself is handsome enough, brick and weathered wood, but you're really here for the mechanics of it all. Kids who think flour comes exclusively from supermarkets find it revelatory. Adults tend to get a bit lost wondering how people actually managed this work day after day.

It's free to look around, which is just as well given there's no cafe or gift shop to soften the blow. Wroxham's only a couple of miles away if you need lunch, and it's worth timing your visit accordingly - don't show up at dusk hoping for a good look at the millwheel.

The location works brilliantly for a Broads holiday. Norfolk Broads Haven is barely two miles off, and you can easily pair this with a waterside walk or a potter around the nearby villages. It's the sort of stop that takes an afternoon but feels like proper Norfolk - no theme park energy, just old engineering and water doing what it's always done.