All Restoration Updates

All three tuns along with their shoes, horses and hoppers have now been cleaned and preserved. They will be covered in plastic as we continue work on  repairing the floors and wall plates.

Here you can see the three new windows in the north face. We worked with Robin Uff the (now retired) conservation officer on the design of these windows. We have a very traditional horizontal sliding sash design that was very common in Bedfordshire. These are often referred to as "Yorkshire sliding sash windows".

Here are Don and David fitting the new sluice gate. Don has designed a rack and pinion system to control the water flow. He has followed traditional practice carving the engineer's name (that's Don) and the year into the front panel. The water is held back by the stop boards further back since the dagger-boards for the new sluice gate haven't been installed yet. Even with low flow rates the fine sheet of water is evident as it flows over the tray it resembles a sheet of black plastic.

The first set of complete mill furniture restored. The set includes the tun, shoe, horse and hopper.

Bedfordshire drainage board finished dredging the river last week and we were keen to try the new sluice tray. Shifting thirty years of accumulated silt is challenging.  As we lifted the stop boards we were rewarded by a beautiful clean flat sheet of water flowing over the new sluice tray.  

The water is running properly again after a very long time resting. We continue to excavate the tail race by hand and hope to render the waterwheel "dry" ie running with clearance below the buckets rather than flooded which loses efficiency.

All of the mill furniture has been ravaged by woodworm and some of it is barely hanging together. This hopper in particular was in a bad way and has needed wood glue and filler in places to hold it together. The millers mended things using tin and lots of small tacks so the same technique has been used to mend the corner of this hopper. The tin is already rusty because it had been used to mend a rat hole in one of the grain bins.

Here are two hoppers resting on the top of the Victorian tun. The hopper on the left has just been treated with woodworm killer. The one behind has been treated with both woodworm killer and white colour stain. The colour stain will ensure that the colour remains the same instead of going orange when the shellac and furniture wax is applied.

There are three pairs of stones in the mill. The original pair were driven from the waterwheel. Another pair was added later, probably by the Victorians and were driven by steam. These millstones have a hexagonal tun whilst the others have round barrel-style tuns.

Here you can see the Victorian tun gently sanded and painted with woodworm treatment on the top.

If you look down onto the centre of the millstones you can see the gimbal that holds the (upper) runner stone on its spindle.

The tuns have been removed from two pairs of stones so that they can be renovated. In the foreground are the stones that were driven by steam via an auxiliary cast iron hursting frame.

The new sluice is made of of Accoya. The tray curves very slightly to direct water into the waterwheel buckets. 

Accoya is a remarkably stable material used extensively in the waterways of the Netherlands. It is is guaranteed to last 25 years submersed in water and 75 years as a cladding material.

The last of the scaffolding is down. We now have a clear view of the corner window and renewed access means we can have big clear up.

All hands on deck or under the deck in this case. Here's Sarah clearing out the first and second layers of silt and stuff from under the waterwheel. 

Finding the right bolts to hold the new buckets onto the waterwheel has taken some time and a sample or two along the way. Here we have a stainless steel bolt combined with a tapered SG-iron washer that matches the geometry of  the grey cast iron waterwheel flanges the washer ensures that the fixings operate properly.

This is the only vertically sliding box sash window in the whole building. It's an Accoya copy of the original and is held in place with inflatable cushions prior to permanent fixing.

The corner window was installed by expert fitters from Andrew Jaynes who manufactured the windows. It achieves exactly what we wanted of it - the timber structure of the mill inside is clearly visible from the outside. This is a particular favourite of our recently retired conservation officer, Robin Uff.

Don prepares the end of the main shaft. This is simply a tidying up of the end of the shaft enabling the drive flange to locate on a spigot.  The flange will couple the gearbox to the pit-wheel converting 10rpm to the 1500rpm necessary to match grid electrical frequency.

The weatherboarding is complete and most of the window liners are in place. The structural openings are designed to secure horizontal sliding sash windows having areas of glass matching the originals.

The outer plain bearing of the waterwheel needs to be replaced.

This little temporary stand supports the shaft with roller element bearings mounted on a steel and wooden plinth. We can rotate the wheel with the use of a winch. 

The lucum is the trickiest bit of weatherboard installation. The space below the lucum is now filled in so that we have more than just a floorboard between us and the driveway below us. The trap door is carefully preserved to ensure its future.

The year that we finished restoring the roof is carved into an oak diamond at the eastern gable end.

We were originally going to use a larch or oak weatherboarding that would have been painted with a proven long-lasting exterior paint. Then we discovered Accoya. The ultimately superior properties of Accoya result from a process called Acetylation.

Accoya is a wood that is almost inert, immune to bugs and even immersion in water. It's TRADA guaranteed for 75 years. The colour was an unexpected bonus since it is so close in colour to the paint that was originally on the mill. It will pale and 'silver' with age but won't need any maintenance for many years.

Accoya also works beautifully for making the windows. It is stable enough that we can make the glazing bars that are just as thin as the existing windows even though they are holding double-glazed panels. So we get low maintenance low energy windows that don't need to be painted, will match and age at the same rate as the weatherboarding and will still open and close smoothly after 10 years of being battered by rain and condensation.

Here's the big stick in place. We had to get a Genie lift in to move this beam into place. The stop chamfer and the cut-outs for the rafters are all hand cut. Dave has done a great job of putting it in its place. The laser level is evident in this shot.

This is Dave Shakespeare sitting on a big stick or oak, 15inches square, it weighs half a ton and replaces a completely rotten pine beam that has been holding nothing up for far too long.

We are now working on the leadwork around the lucum and that means we are well on the way to a completed roof. Nick is a masterful welder, his leadwork is perfection and the whole team take great pride in a great job.