There has been a mill at Bacton Wood since the Domesday Book was produced in 1086. The present building was reconstructed in 1747, and extensively modified in 1825, in anticipation of the canal opening, and the increase in trade that that might bring. It was made of white rendered brick, with a roof of slates, although the adjoining mill house had a pantiled roof, but was subsequently reroofed in slate. The cast iron waterwheel was in diameter and wide, providing enough power to turn three sets of stones. The water supply was not always adequate in the summer, and a Dodman steam plant was installed in the late nineteenth century. Its boiler exploded around 1910, and an hot bulb engine manufactured by Richard Hornsby & Sons replaced it. The mill was last used commercially in 1944, by which time it was powered by a diesel engine. It was sold for conversion to a house in 1967. The Hornsby engine was sold to enthusiasts when the mill was restored in 1984, and the mill was bought by Laurence Ashton in 1994, who is hoping to run it using water power once his Old Canal Company has rewatered the canal. There are four sets of stones on the milling floor. Sir William Cubitt, who invented the self-regulating windmill sail in 1807 and the prison treadmill in 1818, lived in the mill house during his childhood.