Here we are a few days after the concrete was poured. Removal of rotting timbers started to reveal the medieval wall of the 1720 mill. It also compartmentalises the milling process nicely. Gravity takes corn from the top floor, to the stone floor and deposits it on the ground floor beneath the mill stones into sacks.
The concrete lorry arrived on our custom made road. This was 44 tons fully loaded. The road was necessary because our lovely neighbour thought he was gaining leverage over us by blockading our rightful access to our front door with motor vehicles and heavy planters. The job simply went on and the neighbours bargaining chips diminished.
The erosion of chips continued as we used the roadway to load stone, sand, insulation drainage and reinforcing materials enabling the mill floor to be constructed.
This is like a scene from the battle of the Somme. It actually shows the internal drainage along the North wall of the mill. The foundations are completely saturated at this point in time. The ground water level in this space was less than two feet above the river outside. The drainage inside the mill has transformed this situation.
Out of the four trial pits that were dug, one had to be abandoned because it filled up with water too quickly. The archaeologists found their lunch in another pit - in the form of a live crayfish.
On the south side of the mill, they found remains of the riverbed. This implies that the river previously ran through what is now the mill and possibly alongside a previous, smaller mill.