Flooring begins!.....

We had joist about had enough of fitting them, there was no joistification for anymore..


Finished joists on west of bin floor

At last, the bin floor joists are all in place and some floorboards have been fitted. The scaffolding will be removed / adapted as we work our way across. It will be nice not to have to tiptoe across joists for a change.

Drum restoring, and flooring

Sack hoist drive drum



New pieces let-in



Drive drums for boulters



A mixture of on and off-site work since the last post. Off-site we have started to restore the drive drum for the sack hoist. This has been affected by woodworm but there is plenty of 'meat' left in it. The worst bits have been cut away and new pieces let in. Its a similar story with the drive drums for the boulters. These are also being repaired, backed up with a layer of plywood to support the fragile structure. (This won't be visible when completed). Meanwhile, on-site work continues on the replacement bin floor joists - the original millwrights seem to have made-do with what material was available - so each joist housing has its own peculiarities - very time consuming to refit.

On tenter hooks, and a rare weather phenomenon

The new steel yards, welded to a cranked shape, are being set up with the tentering gear. These mechanisms would allow the gap between the stones to be minutely adjusted, according to the speed of rotation of the sails. The layout has been deduced from evidence of the remaining parts of the originals.

Meanwhile, work is progressing on the new joists for the bin floor. Also, the stonework around the spliced beam ends on this floor is being reinstated.

We were treated to a 'fire rainbow' today - a coloured arc in the sky caused by light passing through ice crystals in high level cloud. I think the proper term is a circumhorizontal arc - quite a rare phenomenon at these latitudes.

More splices - bin floor this time

The southern beam ends on the bin floor had gone the same way as those on the stone floor. The remains were more like compost than timber, with a few birds nests thrown in for good measure. Splices had been cut and today they were lifted up and we started to fit them.

South-east beam end on the bin floor

South bed stone hoisted back up

After a bit of scaffold tweaking, we were able to lift the south bed stone up to the stone floor today. Not easy, even with modern lifting tackle. Must have been fun in the old days! An interesting filler has been used in a pit in this stone - looks like it's lead.

North stones back in their rightful place

The North stones are now set up, with the drive gear all in place and a new kerb installed.

A new door...

The original door to the bin floor has been absent for some time. The opening had been blocked up with timber and wire mesh. To improve the weatherproofing of the mill, a new 'stable' door has been made. This was fitted today, with the surrounding frame assembled on site and fixed to the stone. Long term - this will help with access for long timbers and so on...