Winter weather

Some of the parts of the second waterwheel

 It has been a bit nippy these past 2 Tuesdays, so progress on the launder has been rather slow.  However, last week the scaffold had been erected, though not exactly as we wanted it.  It is much safer working between the launder and the spillway pit, but they have put a fence at the spillway end which prevents us getting to the stonework.
We were therefore at least able to do a  few preparatory jobs.  There is also a project to restore the mill barn, so we had to remove a few mill artifacts from it - such as the shroud plates from the second waterwheel.  These may not look much, but need 3 men to move them safely.

George and Richard clean up
the spillway

Today there was no Ray, as he was digging his car out of the snow.
We all helped to remove the large old, delaminating stone from the edge of the spillway, remove the loose stones below it, and tidy up the mortar. George carried on tidying up the stones and mortar in the general launder area.  We seem to have acquired a suitable replacement for the top stone from the former greenhouse floor.  Ian, the Trust buildings man, has approved the lime mortar we plan to use to rebuild the spillway, so this can now go ahead.


Bob and Richard mounted the two new pulley brackets for the revised sack hoist.  Richard had fabricated them to the measurements Bob took a few weeks ago, and they were painted last week.  Everything went together without too much of a problem.

Richard fixes the pulley bracket; note the
rare glimmer of sunshine!