To be able to visit an industrial premises which was built to be state-of- the-art 100 years ago is quite a privilege, yet this mill remains virtually unaltered since that time. Our Local History Club had a very enlightening trip to this mill on a beautiful May evening and witnessed the last Victorian, turbine powered, roller mill in Britain. The mill is open to the public and was saved from demolition by a group of enthusiasts and is a complete delight to go round.
Even though it is quite a big building you are struck by how compact it is on the inside – it is crammed with machinery, but it is all precisely laid out. Many of the components are made of wood – the bucket conveyers, the sieving machines, the hoppers etc. are all made from a mellow, red timber. Massive, scotch pine baulks supported by cast-iron pillars hold the floors up, but these huge beams are only loosely set into the walls – if they were tight in, the reciprocating action of the machinery could shake the walls down!
The wheat arriving at the mill is lifted up several floors to be dropped into hoppers above the rollers. The (not very healthy) fashion for eating pure white bread could only have come about with the advent of roller mills – the old horizontal millstones could not produce it. However 100 years ago the technology had moved on and had gone on to cracking the wheat between two heavily scored rollers, which closely resemble an old washday mangle. Some of this cracked wheat can go to decorate the top of crusty loaves etc. but the bulk of it is taken by very delicate bucket elevators back nearly to the top of the building again to the “Plansifters”. These are a big square stack of sieves being shaken around in an elliptical motion whilst being suspended from the ceiling on a series of rattan canes (similar to bamboo). Some of the product which is not completely milled is then sent back down to the rollers. The remarkable thing here is, that these sieves are being constantly brushed from above and below by small delicate brushes, one set being made of horse hair, the other made of rabbit fur! A lot of trial and error must have gone into the development of these sieves (and a lot of rabbit pie eaten).
Above this floor, the rooms are just a mass of metal tubes and wooden trunking and our guide told us, that if ever they had to repair any of these – it was a real puzzle. He added that – “the old millwrights must have been tremendously skilled people”. The mill is powered by a turbine, which takes water from the mill leat – down a 10ft. fall, through the turbine, then lets it back into the river Wye. The power is transferred by a vertical shaft which sits below water level in a bearing made of “Lignum Vitae” – an oily hardwood, the same wood that Crown Green Bowls are made of. The turbine is also used to generate 12kW of electricity to illuminate the mill, which must have seemed to be a bit of a miracle in those far-off days. Waste meal was used to feed hens and pigs down in the orchard, so it was a very self –sufficient business.
This highly informative visit was followed by a splendid supper at the Anchor – we sure push the boat out at the History Club!
Brian Woodall.