Delivery of New Millstones
April 15th 2008
It is an unique occasion in any mills history to have a a brand new pair of stones.
Letheringsett watermill was originally built to house four pairs of millstones. One of the existing pairs of stones is a pair of 200 year old French burr stones quarried in France and cut during the Napoleonic revolution. The long awaited millstones were ordered fourteen months ago as a result of Mike Thurlow winning the UKTV Food Hero Award 2006. The quartz and granite chip millstones were specially made for Letheringsett watermill in Holland by Hans Titler who makes all the grind stones for the German and Dutch mills. Once working, they will double the mills output overnight
The pair of new millstones arrived in the Uk from Holland. They were unloaded outside the mill.
The new bed stone (left) with the square centre outside the mill next to the new runner stone (right) with the round centre. (right)
The frame used for lifting the millstones was attached to the new runner stone. This enabled the millstone to be lifted and turned to an upright position.
Strops were put through the central hole and attached to the teleporter forks. The millstone was then slightly lifted allowing it to swing in position. The stone was raised, swivelled and then lowered to allow adjustments to length of the strops to be made.
The teleporter lifted the millstone up and skilfully manoeuvred it through the stone floor doorway.
With the strops released, the millstone was rolled into position. Another strop was used to attach it to a pulley and hoist.
The millstone was gradually lowered to lie flat on the floor.
As the bed stone weighs 560k and the runner stone 760k, nearly a ton of quartz, it was important that the millstones were lowered very gradually before being gently positioned over main floor beams.
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