Security Lights
I am pleased to report that the Council recently fitted security lighting, coupled to motion sensors, to the Mill. We hope this will greatly reduce the vandalism, especially graffiti, which we have been experiencing recently. - JW
An Indian family using a Quern
Frank Morley sent me this picture to illustrate the use of the Quern we have a similar one in the Mill.
We have recently had a couple of visitors to the Mill from the Indian sub-continent and they both described how as children they had assisted their grandmothers using a Quern. One said that his family had used their Quern not only for grinding flour but peppers, and coffee as well. I would have thought the various strong flavours of the peppers and coffee would have made the flour they produced “interesting”! - JW
INDUSTRIAL MILLS
This is the third of Frank Morley’s articles on the history and development of milling.
The traditional windmill and watermill was for grinding wheat and pumping water for irrigation, but mills have been used for many other purposes.
The oldest use of wind power for manufacturing products is the crushing of seed to extract the oil. By the 17th century Britain was producing sufficient seed oil to satisfy internal demand and exporting to the Continent. So much so that in 1643 the Exchequer imposed an excise duty on the production of oil.
For centuries man has produced pots from local clay. During the 17th century the demand for tea and coffee brought an immediate need for the production of drinking vessels. Potters used a variety of materials which involved crushing and mixing by hand. As demand increased windmills were harnessed to do the work. As one of the potters materials used was flint, considerable power was required to crush this to powder form which the windmill could provide. In 1720 Thomas Astbury started to use crushed flint in production and others followed him in particular, the Wedgewood family. This proved so successful that in 1782 Wedgewood converted a corn mill at Fenton on the River Trent to grind flint.
A further use for windmills was found in the paint industry. At the end of the 18th century lead was a basic ingredient for paint which covered cover the many iron structures of the period. The chief centre for the manufacture of white lead was Newcastle. About 1800 Richard Fishwick and Archer Ward built a windmill solely for grinding lead carbonate. The partnership rapidly expanded and in 1785 they opened two further mills at Finsbury Field and Red Bull Wharf in London. One of the mills contained eight pairs of stones solely for crushing lead carbonate.
Chalk is a white calcareous rock and used for civil engineering products. It is crushed to produce whiting which is mixed with linseed oil and produces putty and a whole range of goods including rubber boots. Between 1775 and 1790 a brick tower mill was built at Stoneferry on the River Hull, fitted with five roller sails, to crush chalk. Many other wind powered whiting mills were built across the Downs and the Wolds where the chalk strata existed.
Similar mills were used for crushing lime and for producing cement. Gypsum was in demand for the production of Plaster of Paris which was milled near Derby. In 1850 a mill at Burwell was used to grind coprolites. The corn mill at Werringham was converted in the mid 20th century to produce coal bricks, and a mill at Warrington ground emery for polishing glass.
In 1791 a small smock mill was built near Poole for bawling hemp in the rope making process. In the West Riding in 1787 at Morley, a windmill was built to drive a scribbling machine for carding the wool ready for spinning
Oak bark is used for the tanning of leather and many windmills were utilised in crushing bark. Bones were crushed to provide fertiliser. Starch was milled at Kings Lynn. Zinc ore calamine crushed for brass making and a horizontal windmill built in 1887 was used to generate electricity, the fore-runner of the modern wind turbine of today.
Windmills were used to de-water coal mines and wind power drove pumps for many varied purposes. The first English paper mill was established in Hertford in 1494. Wind power was used to lift hammers to beat rags into pulp, the basis of paper at that time. Windmills were also used for sawing tree trunks into planks.
In the 1790s steam power became a practical proposition and wind or water machinery commenced to decline. So that in the 19th century although wind power was still attractive, it was fast becoming a part of history.
However, the contribution of the windmill to industrial evolution should not be dismissed and deserves to be recorded. - Frank Morley