[from MM B240/97]
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"Now Herkneth." quod the Millere, " Alle and some !
For I wol telle a legende .. .. . . *
The Miller's Prologue, Geoffrey Chaucer, A.D. 1344-1400The earliest record so far found shows that the mill was working in 1506 when it belonged to Robert Qualtrough. If it was then working, it is likely that it was doing so for several centuries before that. Being an "ancient mill,"it had to feed each year a tithe pig." the property of the Lord of Man.
The mill remained the property of the Qualtrough family right down to 1904, when the two surviving sisters of William Qualtrough sold it to John Woods of Ballabeg, himself a miller. It continued to be worked by him and later by his family or tenants until July 1925, and them it stopped for good. Water power and grinding stones, after two thousand years, had to give way to speed in the shape of electricity and rollers.
It is believed that the mill was largely rebuilt in about 1832, or possibly earlier, and that was almost certainly when the present machinery was installed. Most of the wheels are cast-iron, though the stone nuts (the pinions driving the stones) have wooden teeth, and the pitwheel on the water-wheel shaft is wooden with a cast-iron rim and teeth. Prior to about 1800 they would all have been constructed entirely of wood.
The machinery. though it looks at first sight primitive and cumbersome, is not so at all, it is simple amd ingenious and perfectly adapted for its work.
The construction of the smallest stone is fascinating. It is what is known as a French burr stone, made of chalcedonic hornstone, found in the Paris basin at La Ferté-sous- Jouarre, 70 kilometres east of Paris, and at Epernon, 60 kilometres to the west, and which is only quarried in small pieces. The finished millstone is built up out of some twenty-five pieces, held together on the arch principle, set in a bed of plaster of Paris and bound with iron rings shrunk on. The grinding power of a French burr stone of four feet in diameter was equal to that of a six feet diameter one-piece stone of millstone grit from Yorkshire or the Peak, of which the other two stones are made.
It is interesting to realise that this stone was so valuable that in 1809 arrangements were made for its importation for a period of three months, even though this was right in the middle of the Napoleonic wars !
One of these millstones which was worn out and thrown away 45 years ago, was rescued from under a pile of debris and herbage in front of the mill and has been rebuilt on the dam by the house.
Great skill and experience and much hard work was required to dress the stones, that is to cut the grooves in them with a steel chisel, weighing about three pounds, at the right angle and to the correct depth to ensure proper grinding, as well as to adjust them to the right clearance and to balance them so that they ran evenly. A stone required dressing after about 300 hours work, during which time it had possibly ground a thousand sacks of grain.
The water-wheel itself is what is known as a breast-shot wheel, that is to say the water enters the wheel at a height somewhat above the level of the axle, acting solely by gravity, and turning the wheel towards the flume or head-race. It is 14 feet in diameter, 4 feet 6 inches wide, and has 40 buckets made of wooden boards set between cast-iron rims. Two buckets contain about 12 cubic feet of water. The axle is wooden, 15 inches or more in diameter, with a steel rod 3½ inches in diameter through the centre, which rod rests in the bearings inside and outside the mill building. The spokes of the wheel are wooden. The existing wheel was built and started work in about 1888.
The wheel probably turned at some four revolutions a minute and developed at this speed roughly six horse-power. There was only enough power to drive one pair of stones at a time. Shortage of water was always a difficulty in most water-driven mills, and John Woods, during his ownership, tried to solve this problem by installing a Crossley oil engine on the bottom floor, driving the whole mill, including the wheel, by means of the shaft which is still there. This, however, was not a satisfactory solution, because the oil engine needed the almost undivided attention of one man to keep it going.
Oats and barley were ground in the mill; crushed oats and barley meal for animal feeding, sieved oats for porridge, oat cakes and the like, and barley flour. As well as the three pairs of stones, the sack hoist and the oats bucket elevator (which has been remade), the various auxiliary machines for sieving oats and making barley flour, together with the cleaning and winnowing machinery, are all in working order. Oats before being ground was dried on metal sheets over a coke furnace in the drying tower or kiln, a hot, dirty and unpleasant task, not without danger. To add to all the difficulties of milling the work was done in what would now be considered semi-darkness and in an exceedingly dusty atmosphere. Furthermore, a one-and-a-half hundredweight sack is not the lightest of burdens to move about.
No-one regrets more than myself that it has not proved practicable to restore water-power to the mill. To renovate the wheel would necessitate its complete reconstruction, as all the wooden buckets have disappeared, the wooden axle is perished and so are the spokes. The walls of the dam will not now hold water, the sluices are rotten or missing, the leat, which is nearly half a mile long, is entirely filled in and overgrown, while the dam across the river has long since been swept away. However, the inside of the mill has been restored to its original condition and the machinery can now be seen running again, just as it has done for so many years.
Kentraugh Mill, Isle of Man. 6th February, 1969. R. M. Nuttall.
PITWHEEL The main gear-wheel mounted on the water wheel axle, meshing with the WALLOWER and thus driving the great upright shaft.
WALLOWER. The level gear-wheel fixed on the upright shaft, taking the drive from the WATER WHEEL via the PITWHEEL.
BRIDGE TREE. The beam supporting the weight of the top stone and which is raised or lowered by means of a turn-screw
STONE NUT. The pinion, keyed on the bottom of the spindle on which rests the upper stone, driving the upper stone by meshing with the spur wheel on the upright shaft. Stone nuts have wooden teeth for smoothness of running, and turn with the sun.
TENTER. To adjust the gap between the stones by raising or lowering the BRIDGE TREE. Making this adjustment correctly was one of the great arts of milling
RUNNER. The upper millstone which turns
BED and NETHER STONE. The lower fixed stone.
TUN. The wooden casing round the stones to prevent the grain when ground flying everywhere and to guide it into the chute into the sack on the basement floor
HORSE. The wooden cradle holding the hopper above the top stone.
DAMSEL. The iron rod keyed into and driven by the top stone striking against and shaking the SHOE to prevent the grain packing up and ceasing to run onto the stones
SHOE. The wooden guide for grain from the hopper into the centre of the top stone
MILLERS WILLOW. A springy piece of wood under tension to keep the SHOE pressing against the damsel.
MILL BILL A steel chisel and wooden holder for dressing the stones.
THRIFT. The wooden holder for the steel chisel.
DRESSING. Cutting the grooves in the stones. Another very fine art, and hard work.
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Water powered Mills etc |
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Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The
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