Winter Maintenance Jobs

The closed season has arrived, and we have been planning our jobs for the  winter months, as well as getting started on some of them.  For the past couple of weeks we have been involved in meetings, first with a Trust buildings surveyor, then among ourselves to prioritise tasks and look forward to the year ahead.

The main job is to be the refurbishment of the waterwheel, whose wooden boards have become rotten; this results in lack of power, as the water leaks out of the buckets.  The bolts that hold the boards in have mainly had to be cut away, as they are too corroded to undo.

Richard removes a bucket bottom board

We wondered how heavy the wood in the wheel was (perhaps useful for the second wheel).  After some interesting cross-calibration of the weight of hammers, bottles of water and chocolate biscuits, we established that the total weight of the liner, bucket front and bucket bottom boards is about 480kg, or nearly half a ton!

The larch to replace the liner boards is already in stock, and the oak for the others has been ordered.  We have also decided to spend some of our Marsh Heritage Award prize money on a saw table to help with the task of preparing boards to fit.

Preparing the ground
for new cobbles

The other main job is likely to be cobbling the outside areas.  We estimate we may need 15,000 cobbles to cover all the areas, but for the time being we have started on the area between the wheelhouse and the river.  Once the contractors have finished refurbishing the barn, it is proposed to cobble the whole mill yard area.

The work we would like to do in the kiln needs to be a "project", and so will not be able to start until the next Trust year.

Among other jobs, we have

• measured and drawn up the old harrow that was hanging in the barn so that it can be restored
• lifted the runner stone of the French Burr pair and greased the centre bearing
• dismantled and varnished the flour chute to improve flour flow

We have also agreed to improve our risk assessment documentation and the management of flour production and sales.  The old flour label has been agreed on, with minor alterations to incorporate information that was missed from the old one.

The old harrow

Apple Day and Miscellaneous Maintenence

 

Sunday13th October was Apple Day at Acorn Bank.  As we drove in in the morning, we were struck by the very impressive Helm Cloud that had formed over the North Pennines and Helm Bar over the Eden Valley - we don't often see such distinct formations.

A sack being hoisted

The Apple Day was very well attended, and we managed to get 417 visitors down to the mill.  Nick and Ana Jones from Little Salkeld were among the visitors, along with some of their millers.  Richard and I milled flour all afternoon (until we ran out of grain), and I bagged some - we sold 32 bags in all.

In between times, we tried out the newly restored sack hoist  -great success!  It does require concentration, as there is no auto-stop  - the sack would wind up into the pulley if we let it.  There was also a minor issue with the pulley over-running when the cable is dropped back through the trapdoor, and unravelling the cable.

The brake band

 Therefore on Tuesday we added a brake band to introduce a bit of resistance to its spin.  We used an old lifting strap as the friction band.

Among the other jobs we tackled today, George and Peter began to lay out some of the stone which will form the walls of the kiln.

Oops, catching up again

Sorry, readers (if there are any), I have been out of action with spasms in my back for a few weeks, so there are a few things to report.


As we had to remove them from the barn and the timber store, we have been looking at the pile of stones that used to be part of the kiln.  We have one stone that is identifiable on the old photos of the kiln, but the others are a complete mystery.  The long stones in the foreground are the beams for the kiln.








In an attempt to preserve them from damage by the builders restoring the barn, we got the estate staff to help remove the two millstones that were embedded in the ground in the yard. The visiting public certainly likes being able to see them. However, we were told we should not have moved them, as they are "part of the archaeology".  The estate staff therefore have put them back.  In the process, a very nice mason's mark was found on one of them.

Richard works on the shelling stone nut.

 Much of the work that has gone on has been the restoration of the shelling stones.  The steel sandwich has been completed, and the taper refitted to the shaft using new wooden wedges.  While I was away, the shaft was refitted, the top bearing built up, and the runner stone replaced so the stone could turn again.

The position of the wedge was carefully adjusted to ensure the gear teeth engage accurately.  There was then a lot of work to do to make the fork that is supposed to disengage the stone nut work again, as the position of everything has changed.  There were also some brackets made to clamp to the shaft.  The lower ones are to stop the taper dropping down the shaft as the wedges shrink, and the upper ones are to stop the taper lifting when the stone nut is lifted - the stiction between the two is often enough to do this.

The only other thing of note was that a "Trust marketing compatible" flour label has been designed.  A straw poll of everyone we could find gave a 19:1 vote in favour of retaining the old one, though we will learn from a couple of items we haven't put on the old one.

Catching up!

Sorry not to have posted anything for a few weeks, but life has been rather busy both at home and in the mill.
We have been milling (and selling) a lot of flour - failing to get far enough ahead of ourselves to deliver any to the shop. The ash spring on the shoe broke, so we have reinforced it with a metal coil spring.  The photo also shows the "sock" we have added to the shoe (!) to prevent grains bouncing off the damsel and over the stones, ending up whole in the flour.
On May 18th the river rose so fast that Richard had to stop the mill turning to prevent damage.  A lot of the pond liner in the wheel buckets stripped out, so Bob and (mostly) Ray replaced them the following Tuesday.

Meanwhile, work has continued on the drive for the shelling stones.  The steel plates have been finished and bolted to the stone nut - here Ray and Richard are drilling the top plate for the insertion of spring pins to help take the rotational force.

The cob oven is no more

  Work is supposed to be starting soon to restore the mill barn, so we have been busy removing everything important from its inside and immediate outside.  This includes several thousand roof slates, a huge amount of stone, the stone lintel beams for the kiln and, unfortunately, the cob oven.  Peter Dickens says he will build a new and better one when the barn is finished.

The Independent on Sunday Happy List

Another accolade for the mill volunteers.  Last Sunday the Independent on Sunday published its "Happy List" of 100 people "whose volunteering, caring, fundraising, mentoring, charity founding or selflessness makes Britain a more contented, supportive, better-adjusted and happier place."   And the Acorn Bank Watermill volunteers were first (alphabetically) in the list!

Our entry reads: 
"Acorn Bank Watermill Volunteers

Heritage lovers

Richard Harland, Ray Gill and Bob Price form the trio who painstakingly restored and now maintain an ancient mill at Temple Sowerby, Cumbria. For five years they have helped to rebuild the wooden structure, and the mill is now able to grind flour for the first time in over 70 years."

The full article can be seen at

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/the-independent-on-sunday-happy-list-2013-8591000.html

Tidying up and getting ready to mill

A full house today, Richard, Ray, Bob, George, Mike and Peter. Between us we tackled some finishing-off jobs.

The information board explaining the Lower Mill Machinery had fallen off the fence and needed to be re-displayed.  We had been thinking for some time that it was in the wrong place, as visitors saw it on entering the mill and thought it referred to the main machinery.  Ray and Bob decided to make a stand for it so it would be more relevant.

They then went on to repair part of the fence on the viewing platform.

 George and Mike carried on pointing and replacing the cobbles where we had inserted the new fence above the spillway pit.  In the previous couple of weeks when I wasn't there, the volunteers built a new trough to catch the water spilling from the dump valve.  Peter can be seen here extending and lining it.

Richard meanwhile got the machinery set up and ready to start milling. At the end of the afternoon the year's first delivery of wheat arrived and had to be manhandled across the yard and upstairs.  Not good for the back - we must get the sack hoist working.

We also put the cob oven back into some kind of usable state.  We had rather neglected it, because it would have had to be rebuilt when the barn was restored, but that project has been held up by the possibility of bats.  We cleaned it up, fitted a new tarpaulin and George skinned the outer surface with fresh lime mortar.

Tidying up the launder area

The launder has gone together slightly different that the previous version, so we have had to make one or two adaptations, including to the gate valve.

We have now finished the work on the launder, apart from the pointing (which we still can't do as the weather remains stubbornly below the required 5 degrees) and stopping up one or two leaks (also difficult at present temperatures).  It has been the coldest March for 66 years, apparently.

We therefore began tidying up by removing a lot of the rubble, sacks and bags we had been using or had left about. We also began to replace and repair the fencing.  As you can see, the section of fence alongside the steps is now back in place, as is the guard rail for the gate valve adjusting platform and part of the temporary fence has been removed.