This
brief unreferenced report concentrates on the
watermill machinery, and follows a site visit by
Alan Stoyel, 5-11-09
The staddle barn was probably
built in 1791-92 soon after the completion of
the parliamentary enclosure of the parish in
1790. It was built for storing sheaves of grain
(mainly wheat) after the harvest, and for
threshing the sheaves by hand with the flail
during the winter months. It is clearly evident
from construction features of the watermill
building that it was added to the barn at a
later date. It will be suggested here that the
watermill building and its internal machinery
were probably added 1805-10. A local informant
believed that the waterwheel ceased to be used
in about 1890.
The watermill was built to drive
a fixed threshing machine in the adjacent barn,
and a single set of millstones when required.
The drive to the threshing drum was taken from
the great spur wheel of the mill’s main gearing
and this remains, its shaft cut off at the point
where it enters the barn. Nothing remains of the
threshing machine itself. There is a
considerable body of literature about this first
generation of threshing machines, and their
impact on rural society in Hampshire –
essentially they replaced skilled labour (mainly
male) with cheaper unskilled labour (mainly
women and children). There is no evidence that
this particular threshing machine was attacked /
damaged during the Swing Riots, 1830 – 31.
The mill building has 3 levels –
the undercroft, the hurst floor (the main gear
room of the mill), and the millstone floor. The
latter can also be described as the top loft –
it contains the drive shafts for the sackhoist
and other ancillary machinery.
In the undercroft the compass-arm
waterwheel, in the wheel pit, survives in
remarkably good condition; a massive wooden
sluice gate remains, which gave a mid-breast
water feed. The waterwheel is completely wooden,
on a massive oak shaft. This shaft carries two
sets of six compass arms. The rings, starts,
sole-boards and floats are all of wood. The
style of the wheel is typical of the 18th
and early 19th centuries. The oak
shaft is supported by a brick pillar which has
been built in the wheel well (now dry); this was
probably built soon after the waterwheel went
out of use.
The pitwheel and the wallower are
of cast-iron. The style of the castings, the
profile of the wallower teeth, and, most
important of all, the 3½ in. pitch of the gears,
are all typical of about 1810. The cast-iron
arched support for the footstep bearing of the
upright shaft is also consistent with this date.
The mill gearing is of the
conventional 2-step great spur wheel type. The
main upright shaft supports a great spur wheel
at hurst floor level, and there is an all-wood
stone nut drive linking with one set of
millstones on the floor above. The drive from
the great spur wheel to the threshing machine
remains – its horizontal square-sectioned shaft
has been cut off at the point where is enters
the barn.
Normally the main upright shaft
is continued up to the next floor, but here
there is a secondary upright shaft instead; this
is driven by a spur gear linking with the great
spur wheel. This secondary upright shaft, and
the gears, drives and machinery it operates, are
clearly an addition, as the components are
largely made in an imported softwood as
distinct from the oak used for the primary
gearing. However the need for this ancillary
drive would have been evident before the
installation of the primary gear was complete,
so it would have been installed very soon
afterwards.
The millstone floor / top loft
has a low platform above the main gearing below,
and the one set of millstones is located on it;
no stones’ furniture remains, except a wooden
tun. The millstones comprise a French burr
runner on a conglomerate bedstone, and it is
evident that the they had been made to produce
animal feed / provender rather than wheat flour.
The crown wheel at the top of the
secondary upright shaft is located in a small
hurst frame / cage that is “suspended” – that is
fixed each end to the roof timbers. The crown
wheel links with a horizontal drive shaft which
carries one small pulley wheel – what it drove
is not known. There is a second horizontal drive
for operating a “crash gear” sack hoist; most of
the sack hoist mechanism remains, including 2
fixed pulleys for the sack hoist rope in the
roof apex.
It can be concluded that the
watermill was added to the existing staddle barn
in about 1805-1810, and that its machinery
appears not to have been altered since its
construction. In particular the compass arm
waterwheel constitutes a remarkable survival of
considerable importance, and great care is
required to conserve it for the future. The
survival of the wheel and shaft over such a long
period in damp conditions is remarkable. If any
major replacement has occurred, the work appears
to have respected good traditional millwrighting
techniques and details.
Gavin Bowie and Alan Stoyel, 26 January 2010
