Autumn Mist - Watermill Blog
9th October 2008

The sun was doing its best to break through the autumn mist when the team met this moring.

As we were gathering outside the President's Barn, donning overalls and boots, the mist started to move.

This picture was taken from outside Vox Villa as the autumn mist slid off the hill. Only a few moments later it was gone, to leave a fresh sunny day.

Enough about the weather, what about the work?

Limewash was applied of course. Bob and Max worked in the mill, painting the walls on the middle floor, known as the stone floor. Richard painted the end wall of the workshop before moving on to making wooden bearing blocks, a job that proved frustrating.

John took advantage of the fine weather to repair the small lintle above the line shaft opening.

Not too many bricks to insert but quite awkward to get at as you can see from the picture.

Colin and Headley worked on the line shaft bearings inside the hayloft, not far from where John was working so he had someone to chat to while he worked.

Finton also worked on the line shaft but in his case we stayed in the stable workshop cleaning up pulleys. We have a selection of pulleys, mostly cast iron but some fabricated from mild steel. The mild steel pulleys take far more cleaning up because they rust much more vthan the cast iron.

Jonathan took on a job that has been begging for attention for months.

There is a massive timber set into the north wall of the mill that was the wall plate for a lean-to roof. The end nearest the bank has decayed quite badly.

Two courses of bricks above the timber had slumped and Jonathan spent the day easing them back up into line. He used a long steel plate and a host of wooden wedges, each one tailored to fit.

The next stage is to stabilise the timber and secure the steel. The brickwork can then be permanently repaired. It will keep Jonathan busy for a few weeks yet.

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