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Ready for Summer
We have completed the repair to the hurst and are now ready for the
summer and our first visitors.
The new ground beam is safely in place and the brick floor has been
relaid.
The beam is solid oak, supplied by Hillend Sawmill at Martley, our
local friendly supplier, and should last for quite a few years.
Taking the old beam out showed us that this has been done on at least
one occasion in the past, possibly more.
The vertical posts would have been mortised into the ground beam when
the hurst was first built but there were no mortises in the old beam
that we removed and the uprights had been toe-nailed onto it. The nails
were of wrought iron and so rusty it was difficult to make out what
they must have looked like when they were new.
The amount of soil that the rats had removed from
under the brick floor
had to be seen to be believed, and it took a couple of barrow loads to
replace it. We also took the opportunity to underpin a short length of
the outside wall that hadn't got any visible footings.
With everything on this level now sound and secure we have replaced the
guards and had a general tidy up ready for summer visitors.
On the stone floor we have finished all the work on the plinth round
the upstream pair of stones and replaced the tun and all the
superstructure.
With that done, we tidied up on this level as well and then had a brief
trial run of the wheel, the first run of 2012.
Sunday 15th April saw the MAC run one of their regular Breakfast Club events and we ran
the mill for an hour or so for anyone who wished to have a look around.
The next Breakfast Club coincides with National Mills Open Weekend,
12th and 13th May so if you come on Sunday 13th there could be some
interesting cars to look at as well as the mill itself.
Part
of the preparation for the Open Weekend has included putting up a
plaque commemerating the re-opening of the mill during the 2010 Mills
Weekend. We have fixed this above the front door of the mill so that it
is clearly visible from the gate.
We have a number of bookings for groups to visit the mill, including
the local Guide Troupe, but there are still plenty of dates available
if you would like to come and see for yourselves. You can book a visit
for this summer via our Bookings Form,
One of our
volunteers recently gave an illustrated talk to a local History Group
on the subject of Shelsley Watermill and other local mills. This seemed
to be a success, so we would be happy to do a similar talk to other
groups within reasonable traveling distance of Shelsley Walsh. If you
are interested why not get in touch via our Contact Page.
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to the previous Watermill Blog entry
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