All Restoration Updates

This is getting exciting, the lucum is almost the last thing to be slated and it means we are nearing the point of putting the ridge tiles on.

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The critical load bearing structure of the south wall above the hursting frame was largely swept up in the vacuum cleaner. The wall plate had gone completely in places and we elected to replace it in oak. The wall plate now supports new Studwork beneath a new supporting horizontal beam above. It was a big relief when we removed the acro-props and nothing happened.

Mark is astonishing. His work ethic is second to none and he carried about 10,000 slates up and down to our roof. He was the man who sorted and graded the slates so that Nick and Wayne could work efficiently. Together Nick Wayne and Mark were a fabulous team.

Here we see Wayne knocking in a few copper nails as he nears completion of the North side.

Here's Wayne fixing the top row on the south side. These slates have to be cut to size.

South side of the roof shows clear indication of what it's going to look like. The roof is loaded with slates which have been painstakingly sorted with thin ones at the top and heavier thicker ones at the bottom.

We unearthed a lot of distressed timbers eaten by rats, rot and the ravages of concrete misguidedly used to shore up failed joints.

We have been exploring ways of exposing the timber structure of the mill to passers by. By glazing on the outside, we could leave the timbers in one corner of the mill exposed so that everyone can see a little history as they walk past.

The south side of the roof was stripped and wrapped during the first week. We managed to rescue a few slates but our decision to replace was confirmed at this stage.

The old roof turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. When we got up there we discovered irrecoverable slates. We very quickly decided to abandon the idea of re-using slates and ordered new ones that matched those on the other buildings.

Here we are on the first floor (the Stone Floor) having cleaned all the paintwork off prior to woodworm spraying. Modern woodworm spray is relatively harmless - the active ingredient is that used in dealing with head lice. Harmless to humans nasty for bugs.

The bards work. David Shakespear is the son of a stone mason. Artfully described by the local people in the know as, "He's the man".

We are very fortunate to have him on board as one of the most talented bricklayers in town. He can turn a hand to almost anything.

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.

New opening... with a view into the new concrete floor in the mill. There are no fancy bricks in this scene just the steelwork in place and a big opening to get diggers in and out. Concrete teams in and out etc.

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.

We made some rather disturbing discoveries along the way. The decades of neglect and almost wanton destruction due to water ingress have taken their toll on the ground floor and anything within. it was clear that we needed to prop a lot of things up during foundation works - and beyond.

This shows the north-east corner of the hursting frame after a new lower cross-brace has been fitted. The degradation of the foot of the post is clear - the vacuum cleaner has done a good job!

The whole of the east end of the husting frame was unsupported and the mill stones were indeed about to fall into the room below. The oak blocks here will be replaced with engineering bricks and the stump at the lower end of the post will be tidied up properly. At least the collapse has been halted.

This shows the top of the repair to the hursting frame. The new piece of oak it let in to the old and jointed into place. a similar job happened below and the two were bolted together as a unit.

This image shows the view from below of the north east upper hursting frame repair. This joint supports the cross beam under the mill stones which sit directly on top of these two timbers.

Rot at the bottom of the vertical post caused it to drop and the weight of the millstones rendered the end of the oak beam assunder - this is shown elsewere.

There was no possibility of replacing the whole of the longitudinal member and it was decided to simply graft on another chunk of oak and bolt it to the beam behind it. The beam behind also made it impossible to fit a true mortice so this is constructed in two sections split along the length as shown.

The mortice was routed in the top half of the extension to the longitudinal member and a second chunk of oak was fashioned to fit into the existing joint and mate with the tenon. These two oak sections where then bolted together and the pair then secured to the beam behind with large coach bolts.

This image shows the damage to the longitudinal member at the north east top corner of the hursting frame. The end of the member has failed as the vertical post supporting it has rotted away.The mortice and tenon joint at the end of the hursting frame horizontal beam simply failed. It is surprising that the whole Mill stone assembly didn't collapse into the floor below. Urgent repairs were the order of the day.

This shows the East end of the hursting frame back in place with the new lower brace fitted and the laser line showing it to be correctly in plumb. Both posts are now firmly back in their respective places with the mortise and tenon joints back together. There was a time where both posts were hanging in mid air from bits of rope secured from above. It was the only way to get the lower joints together and provided a challenge that precluded a photo shoot.

The lower brace is temporarily supported on oak blocks and the missing lower ends of the posts are clearly in evidence.

This is all that remained of the lower brace at the east end of the hursting frame. There are no tenons and it's barely recognisable as a beam. The mortices had gone from the posts it was supposed to support.

This is a substantial piece of oak. It replaces the the old one which had almost rotted away completely - certainly well beyond the point of usefulness. The tenons are 3"x8" and the section is 12"x15" fitting will be a juggling act with substantial posts to support and gentle nudging into place with a fourteen pounder. When it's in place it will take the vertical loads that supports the whole of the east end of the hursting frame and the eastern pair of mill-stones.

This shows the lower south-east corner of the hursting frame. There is nothing supporting the structure at this corner. And the post has fallen out of its mortice.

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.