Our History and Origins

Bernard Tickner moved to Fullers Mill in 1958 and created the garden you see today from rough scrub and woodland.  In 2004, he and his late wife Bess donated the garden to The Fullers Mill Trust, a registered Charity, which was established to manage the garden and to ensure its future.

Fullers Mill Cottage was built in about 1650 and was owned by the Cadogan Estate until it was sold in 1936.  

The Fulling Mill stood on the south bank of the river between it and the Mill Pond.  The earliest record of a Fulling Mill on this site is dated 1458 and since then there have been many mills built and destroyed.  The process of fulling was to make cloth thicker.  This was done by passing the cloth through a series of wooden mallets which were driven by a water wheel; causing the cloth to become felted.  The cloth was then put out to dry on a flat tentering ground secured by tenter hooks, to prevent shrinkage.  (Etching by Alfred Blundell from an orginal sketch he made of the old lock gates in about 1935).

River Lark Navigation Act 1699

The lock at Fullers Mill was one of many on the River Lark between Bury St Edmunds and the River Ouse near Ely, which enabled barges to bring coal from the sea via Kings Lynn.  This trade was at its peak up to the middle of the 19th century when competition from the railways began to take over, and in 1900 the Navigation company was wound up.