Held at:

Private collection

Reference:

rs

Source:

Original photographs

Title:

Digital Archive: Photographs of Pontynys Mill, Longtown

Place name:

Longtown

Date:

2010

Description:

These photographs of Pontynys Mill, Longtown, were taken during the National Mills Weekend open day in May 2010, for which we are grateful to John Hedges, the owner. There is currently no water to the mill, but much of the original machinery is still in place. The design of the mill workings is unusual, with three pairs of millstones and a vertical shaft being driven off a single horizontal shaft connected directly to the right hand side of the pitwheel, and a further single pair of stones and a smutter being driven via another horizontal shaft and gears to the left side of the pitwheel. Diagrams below illustrate the layout, which is made practical by the substantial size of the waterwheel and presumably a correspondingly generous supply of water. This provided enough power for four pairs of millstones and all the ancillary equipment in the mill, rather than the two pairs of stones normally found in a more conventional wallower/ spur wheel arrangement on a vertical shaft.

 

Mill building – front view

 

Mill building – rear view

Diagram of machinery layout

 

Plan of waterwheel and high breastshot sluice

Plan of cog floor and stone floor

Waterwheel [rotates anticlockwise]

 

Waterwheel

Oak axle tree

 

Launder and sluice [high breastshot]

Horizontal shaft, spurwheels and stone nuts

 

Horizontal shaft, spurwheels and stone nuts, with vertical stone spindle

Series of spurwheels  on a horizontal shaft

 

Series of spurwheels

Horizontal shaft, spurwheel, stone nut and stone spindle

 

Direct drive from the right of the pitwheel via a gear to the horizontal shaft

Smutter driven by a belt and pulley from the stone spindle

 

Direct drive from the left of the pitwheel to a stone spindle and the smutter

Close-up of drive arrangement on the left side of the pitwheel

 

The vertical shaft and crown wheel on the stone floor

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Ref: rs_lon_0197