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...

Stone floor; boards, joists and discrepancies

With the Hurst frame complete, work has been proceeding on the main stone floor, inbetween other tasks! This hole is for the south pair of stones, which will be reinstated once the floor is finished. The boards adjacent to the tower wall will be removeable, giving a space through which the stones can be hoisted.

The joists to the east and west side of the stone floor have had to be replaced. Each of these joists has one end set into a socket in the stone wall and the other housed into the Hurst frame This is a view looking up at the western joists, from the main door. For reasons not clear at this stage, the Hurst frame beam seen here is significantly lower than its opposite number. We will have to pack up under the floor boards at this end to take out some of this discrepancy, otherwise the stone floor will have rather a 'unique' shape.

A bit of a fiddle with the new bolter cylinder

The new bolter cylinder is coming along. An elm spindle has been shaped to a hexagonal cross-section, and the original ironwork has been fitted at each end. This was a tricky job, if only we had a 16 inch square drill bit! With the iron bands driven up and everything eventually snug, the spokes could be added. Three holes at the appropriate spacing (dredged up the old school geometry from the memory banks!), then the spokes were driven through to give, effectively, six spokes. The longitudinal rails will then be added (the first can be seen at the bottom of the photo).

The 'crank' in the tail end ironwork seems to correspond with wear marks on the original cabinet at this point. We assume some sort of reciprocating mechanism was used to help feed the bran through the chute at the end of the bolter, to prevent it clogging up.

Bolter frame and cabinet

The bolter frame and cabinet are almost complete. Original pieces have been incorporated as much as possible. Here you can see the original back panel (after some repair) with the new frame and panelling. The original bearing will support the driven end of the cylinder.

The new bolter will be installed in the mill at a later date, once the nearby flooring and surrounding areas are sorted out.

Stairway to heaven

The staircase from the ground floor to the stone floor was first thought to be beyond help. However, when removed from the mill, it was found to be in slightly better condition than suspected. Work has been going on to make a new staircase, incorporating as much of the original as possible. The curved sides were created using layers of elm glued together whilst clamped around a 'former'.

Fixing the staircase back to the mill could be interesting; the originall wooden blocks set into the stone seem to have been put in the wrong place. We shall see!.....