December News
ROSEMOOR RESTORATION REPORT by Tony Nicholls - 1st December 2021
Another satisfying day at Rosemoor culminated in the discovery of a further section of the toothed iron rim of the former water wheel which our navvies unearthed from the tucking mill. We now have six sections of the rim which make up almost half of the circumference of the wheel which we estimate must have been about 8 feet in diameter.
Another satisfying day at Rosemoor culminated in the discovery of a further section of the toothed iron rim of the former water wheel which our navvies unearthed from the tucking mill. We now have six sections of the rim which make up almost half of the circumference of the wheel which we estimate must have been about 8 feet in diameter.
Waterwheel ironwork
We have now fully excavated the lower chamber of the tucking mill. This has revealed more of the lovely cobbled floor although, sadly, a large part of this has been destroyed or intentionally removed. During this process, two interesting drainage holes were exposed at the bottom of the central wall. Clearly, there was some sort of internal drainage system in the building which allowed water and effluent from the fulling process to be expelled into the mill race. Work on the reconstruction of the external wall which bounded the mill race is progressing well and the whole site is starting to take on definitive form and character.
Tucking mill - general view
Tucking mill showing drainage channels
|
Cobbled floor of tucking mill
|
Re-built wall of mill race
On the lime kiln, thanks to the efforts of our resident ‘chippy’, an impressive wooden former is being assembled under the main arch. This will support the replacement stonework during reconstruction. This is a daunting task made more difficult by the fact that the ‘sockets’ where stones have been removed are all of different shapes and sizes.
We also took a look at the last section of the retaining wall in the upper basin adjacent to the bund. Unfortunately, this was not in such a good state of repair as we previously thought, the top of the wall being little more than a pile of earth and loose stones. We decided that this had to be removed in order to get down to a solid base to allow us to rebuild. Despite the soggy conditions in this part of the canal, we managed to lay a couple of courses before the end of the session and hope to complete the rebuild next week.
Re-build of upper basin wall
Generally working parties are held every Wednesday morning, meeting in the main car park at RHS Rosemoor, Torrington at 9.30am. (.NB. Arrangements may vary during Covid restrictions). Please contact Project Manager, Ian Harrison (tel.01237- 475707) for more information.